Planned roleplay

1) Before the session choose a situation which has at least two clearly defined roles. By way of an example, we'll use the situation of finding a room to rent (with the two roles of landlord and tenant). Write a list of things that might be said for each role. See the examples in the box below.  Assign the role of landlord to one half of the class, and tenant to the other half. Each learner receives the list of utterances for their role. Their homework task is to choose 10 of the utterances that they’d like to say and then practice them intensively until they feel comfortable saying them, and they’ve become almost automatic.

 Tennant                                                         Landlord

How much is the rent?                                What’s your job?

How far is it to the nearest shop?              The rent is ……….. a month

Am I allowed to smoke here?                    You need to pay at the beginning of every month.

Is it OK to paint the walls?                      There are no pets allowed.                                

Is internet included?                                     You can have as many guests as you like

Is there a bus stop near here?                When do you want to move in?

I work nights. Is this a problem?             How long do you want to stay here?

Can I use everything in the kitchen?       Do you have someone to be your guarantor?

What do I do with the rubbish?              Is there any other furniture that you’d like?       

What are the neighbours like?               Please don’t make any noise late at night.

2) At the beginning of the next session, learners with the same role work together in a breakout room. They should compare and discuss which utterances they’ve practised, and, if appropriate, give each other some feedback. They should try to remember the utterances that they plan to use in the roleplay to follow.

3) Pair students off so that there is one landlord working with one tenant in new breakout rooms. Landlords can use the real space they're in to present as the room to be rented, or they could use a virtual background instead. They should ideally put away any papers for this stage. Ask them to engage in the roleplay, bringing in the utterances they have remembered as much as possible, whilst maintaining a natural conversation in the target language. If the listener at any point doesn’t understand what is said, the speaker can paraphrase or, if absolutely necessary, translate to L1.

4) Now put learners back into their original landlord and tenant breakout room. How successful were they in using the planned utterances naturally? Were there any utterances that they were unable to use? They discuss this in their groups.

Notes

This activity provides a balance between the controlled reading of a dialogue, and the freer language use associated with a roleplay.  The idea is that learners do not just say the utterances that they have memorised, but that they use them as a framework around which the roleplay happens. Of course, in the heat of the moment, some of the questions may get forgotten and some may not seem appropriate.

Variation

For monolingual groups give the learners the lists of utterances in L1. For homework ask them to work out how to say the utterances in L2. They may do this through consulting more advanced speakers of the language, or any learning material they have available. As above, they should practice the utterances in L1 until they start to become automatic.