Role Play

Topic – 6

ROLE PLAY

INTRODUCTION

In a role play, participants act out various characters or parts. Study and act out the dialogues/conversations given in this topic. They will help you function efficiently in a variety of situations and settings. Practice them with your friends, family members and others. You must act out the roles and also keep changing your roles as you practice. Each role play should be acted out, at least twice, with the participants changing roles. Audio or video recordings of role plays can be a very useful tool for getting feedback, or you can ask others to observe you and evaluate your performance.

Give more importance to how you say dialogues. Stressing, pausing and intonation are very important. Be clear about the vocabulary and key sentences used in various dialogues. Read aloud the dialogues many times, and know what is expected of you, to make it sound natural as you act it out.

As you practice the dialogues below, you will learn the ability to use language for a variety of functions like greeting, leave taking, asking for information, giving advice, warning, asking for directions, answering telephone calls, expressing delight, expressing displeasure, congratulating, expressing pain and expressing fear. For you to play your part effectively, you must choose the best way to express yourself in a particular situation. Pay careful attention to these

✓ What are you trying to do with your language? 

(Describing something, persuading someone, stating preferences)

✓ What sort of a person are you in a particular situation? What is your role? 

(friend, stranger, employee, customer, student)

✓ What is the setting of the role play? 

(a house, at a party, at a meeting) 

✓ What are you talking about?

(topic related to business, travel, sports, politics)

Sample Role Play-1 - How do you do? 

(A student and his teacher greet each other when they meet in a supermarket)

Sample Role Play-2 - Give me some quick tips! 

(Two classmates share their experiences of learning English)

Sample Role Play-3 - Head over heels in love! 

(Two friends in a cafeteria)

Sample Role Play-4 - Today's special (In a restaurant)

Sample Role Play-5 - A busy day! 

(Two neighbours talk while taking their morning walk)

Activity

Inform students to sit in pair and ask them to perform a sample role play with each other.