角色扮演活動與英語教學：活動類型與學生程度如何影響學習過程與成效

Abstract

提升學生溝通能力長久以來一直是英語教師共同努力的教學目標，有鑑於此，專家學者提出許多相關的創新教學理論與溝通式教學方法，而其中角色扮演被認為是最具代表性且成效性的教學活動；然而，很少有文獻關注學生對於角色扮演活動的想法與教師如何在課堂中有效進行角色扮演活動的過程。此外，相關文獻對於「角色扮演活動」的定義不盡相同，因此哪一種類型對學生最有助益、而不同語言程度的學生適用於何種類型，至今尚未有所定論。因此本研究旨在探討：(1)學生對於不同種類角色扮演活動的想法；(2)教師針對不同語言程度的學生進行不同種類的角色扮演活動時，應該注意的教學事項。本研究的實驗對象為桃園市某間國中一個隨機抽樣的八年級普通班級共30位學生，分為三種程度：初學者、中等生、進階生。本研究採用四大類型角色扮演教學活動，以教師為中心到以學生為中心的教學模式依序為：填空式、每句提示型、情境和句型引導式、自由發揮型。透過問卷調查、訪談、教師日誌蒐集研究資料，使用單因子變異數分析和Scheffe事後檢定研究方法分析問卷。研究結果顯示：(1)學生對於角色扮演活動的喜好和興趣，會影響他們對於該活動是否具有學習成效、是否應納入學校英語課程等認知。(2)學生對不同類型活動的不同教學階段(即準備、表演、回饋階段)皆提供類似的教學建議。(3)從三個面向給予教師教學上實質的建議：角色扮演活動各個教學階段的注意事項、進行不同類型角色扮演活動的注意事項、指導不同程度學生角色扮演活動的注意事項。本研究不僅可以了解學生對於不同類型角色扮演活動的想法，更可以提供教師在角色扮演教學活動應用上有效的建議。Language teachers around the world have been pursuing the goal of promoting students’ communicative competence, and many innovative pedagogical theories and communicative approaches have thus emerged. Among them, role-play is considered the most typical one with considerable positive effects on language learning. However, few studies have paid attention to the process of how students perceive and prepare for and how teachers conduct role-play. Furthermore, as the previous researchers interpreted the term “role-play” differently, there is little consensus on which kind of role-play is the most beneficial to students of what proficiency level. To fill these gaps, the present study aimed at exploring how students perceive different types of role-play activities and what teachers should heed when conducting different role-plays to students of different language proficiency levels. One heterogeneous class of thirty eighth-graders in a junior high school in Taoyuan were grouped into basic, intermediate, and advanced levels. Four types of role-play, from the most structured to the most creative mode, were utilized, including skeleton dialogues, cued dialogues, role instructions, and free role-play. Data were collected through questionnaires, sub-sample interviews, and teaching journals. One-way ANOVA and post hoc tests with Scheffe’s method were utilized for quantitative data analysis. Results suggested that: 1) students’ preferences and interests in role-play influenced how helpful they thought of it and whether it should be incorporated into English class; 2) students showed similar suggestions on the conduction of different types at different stages; 3) pedagogical implications with common suggestions on the conduction of role-play were presented from the three viewpoints: different stages of role-play conduction, different types of role-play, and different proficiency levels of students. The study shed light on a better understanding of students’ perceptions of different types of role-play and suggestions for conducting role-play as an instructional means in an EFL classroom.