When was the last time you used a role-play in your ESOL classroom? Role-plays are useful for promoting full class participation. Of course, how one uses a role-play in the classroom will depend on the level of the student. As Jeremy Harmer (2007) says, “Where a simple role-play with ordinary information questions…may be a good target for beginners to aim at, the focus for advanced students will have to be richer and more subtle...” (p. 19). One way to target these more advanced students is to teach them the art of argument and persuasion.

Fun, engaging role-plays at the intermediate/advanced level can be a bit more of a challenge. However, with the right set up, teachers can see increased participation and intercultural communication skills at their best. Students can experience surprises and opportunities to express their opinions with support, interrupt politely, turn take, and show agreement/disagreement. The goal of the intercultural role-play is to increase communication skills—particularly listening and speaking—while experiencing the art of intercultural interactions.

Intercultural Role-Play #1 (intermediate–advanced)
One of my favorite role-plays for the intermediate-advanced levels involves an international negotiation. In this negotiation (adapted from Lesley University’s Intercultural Relations program), the class is divided into two teams of scientists.

Team 1: A group of South American scientists is interested in a special type of New Zealand orange to combat cancer. They need exactly 200 oranges for their cancer research, and the government grant they have to study this orange expires next month. If they cannot do their study this season, they do not know when they will get this opportunity for funding again.

Team 2: There is also a group of Asian scientists who need this same special type of orange found only in New Zealand to create anti-venom for a disease that is currently affecting people in their small villages. These village people are sick, and they are dying. These scientists want to contain the disease before it spreads to other towns, and they know exactly what they need from the orange. They need exactly 200 oranges.

The Role-Play
Both teams meet in New Zealand with a local farmer who grows the special oranges, but this farmer has only 200 oranges left. He or she will decide who gets them. The farmer welcomes both groups to New Zealand and opens the table for negotiation, listening to one student at a time from each of the two teams until all students have spoken, and then the farmer makes a decision. Students cannot speak out of order unless the farmer allows for extra discussion at the end of the negotiation. You, as teacher, are a silent observer (but should take notes on how students are using the phrases they’ve learned and on pronunciation and grammar trouble areas to review later). Each team of researchers must convince the farmer that their group should receive the oranges.

About 10 minutes into the planning stage, provide additional information to each group: The South American team learns that they have more money than the other team because of the grant. They also only need the skin of the orange. The Asian team learns they have less money than the other team, but they only need the juice of the orange. The goal is to get the two teams to work together—to negotiate—with each other so that they are both satisfied with the end result. The farmer serves as the facilitator of the negotiation.

Teacher Prep
Review key phrases for introducing an opinion, phrases for agreement/disagreement, and etiquette for turn taking during a discussion, and write these on the board for students to use during the role-play. Split the class into two large groups, but keep one student to serve as the farmer. Then read the team descriptions to the whole class, but omit the “additional information” until 10 minutes into the planning. Your goal is to get the students to work together.

Student Prep
Students break into two teams and go into separate rooms/spaces to brainstorm their strategies for the negotiation for roughly 15–20 minutes. Students decide in which order they will present their points for consideration, ensuring that each student gets an opportunity to speak. The "farmer" student reads an article that the teacher has provided for him/her until the debate begins.

Follow-Up Activities
Students can conduct research on best business practices and international negotiation skills. Students could also write reflectively in their journals about how they felt the negotiation went and whether or not they would have done anything differently.

Intercultural Role-Play #2 (advanced)
"Tuvalu" is a multifaceted activity that takes several classes to set up—but the rewards are bountiful.  This lesson idea was cocreated with Farika Sanjoyo of Bunkerhill Community College.

The activities begin with watching, possibly over a period of several classes, the ethnographic documentary film called The Disappearing of Tuvalu: Trouble in Paradise (2005), available through Documentary Educational Resources (der.org). The film gives “a detailed overview of contemporary life in the tine South Pacific country of Tuvalu,” which is the “earth’s first sovereign nation faced with total destruction due to the effects of global warming” (Chris Horner, 2005)

The Role-Play
After the conclusion of the film, students form different groups based on individual tag colors you have assigned to them:

1. Islanders who want to stay on the island until the day they die or the island disappears 
2. Islanders who are willing to leave the island and live in a foreign country/place
3. Relatives and friends of the islanders who encourage them to leave the island and help them with their transition as a middle class family 
4. International volunteers who help mediate the process of discussion among the other three groups 

Each group has to meet to discuss reasons for and opinions of their stance and prepare arguments to convince the others to agree with them. The international volunteers anticipate some arguments and discuss how they can be fair mediators among the groups. After their small group planning, the whole class sits in a circle on the floor with island music playing in the background, and the mediators lead the discussion. Circulate during the student prep time and observe silently during the island mediation.

Teacher Prep
Prepare colored tags for the students—an equal number of tags of four colors. Access the film, which is available at der.org via a day pass system. Prepare questions for students to think about before the film, questions to think about during the film, and research opportunities for extended learning. Take note of places within the film where you can pause it and have students report any notes they have taken on predetermined tasks, such as distinguishing fact from theory, or on the questions you asked them to think about.

When the film is over, ask students to share interesting aspects of the film as well as their theories. Assign each student with a colored tag corresponding to the group assignments. Allow the groups to meet privately to plan their discussion points and ways of supporting their personal points of view, providing tips for the group that will mediate the role-play (e.g., ensuring that every student has a chance to speak and time management).  Turn on some island music to set the mood and then invite students to sit in a circle on the floor—encouraging students to sit next to someone other than a group member.

Student Prep
Students begin by thinking about questions that the teacher has written on the board, such as:

• Do I routinely feel overwhelmed living in a busy city? 
• What triggers my desire for more and more things?
• If I were stranded on an island, what might I observe?
• What do I speculate about global warming?
• What kind of scientific evidence do we have that has documented global warming?

The students then watch segments of the film and jot down notes separating fact from theory.

Follow-Up Activities
Students can conduct internet research, such as visiting the CIA World Fact Book, to research Tuvalu. They can share interesting information with the class before the film begins or after. Students can also conduct individual or pair-based research about Tuvalu or other island nations that are facing climate changes, and then present their research to the class.

Conclusion
Intercultural role-plays can be a rich and rewarding experience for all involved. The decision to use a short or long role-play is, of course, at the discretion of the teacher, but I recommend experimenting with content-based material and exploring ways to connect chunks of language or phrases. Combinations of phrases such as, “I see what you mean, but have you considered…?” or “I hear what you’re saying, but what about…?” are useful phrases that students can use both in and outside the language classroom, and certainly in the intercultural world at large. 

References

Harmer, J. (2007). How to Teach English. Boston, MA: Pearson/Longman.

Horner, C. (Director). (2005). The Disappearing of Tuvalu [documentary]. Available from Documentary Educational Resources, 101 Morse Street, Watertown, MA 02472.

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Jennifer Lacroix (M.A. Intercultural Relations): Is a senior lecturer and program advisor/coordinator at Boston University’s Center for English Language and Orientation Programs (CELOP). At BU, she is working to attain a graduate certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). She has also served as special projects director at Documentary Educational Resources, a nonprofit organization that makes, produces, and distributes ethnographic documentary films.

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