Speaking and listening - CCEARole-play

Role-play activities involve pretending to be a different person or taking on a different role in a real-life situation. A role could be developed spontaneously (for example in response to a prop or image) or you might plan carefully to take on a particular role.

During a role play, think about your:

• voice
• facial expressions
• movement
• posture
• gesture

For example, you might be asked to create and sustain a particular character you’ve been reading about.

In English, these tasks are usually designed to help you explore characters in a fictional text such as a story or play. It may help you gain a better understanding of a particular character’s role in the plot.

Preparing for a character role-play

When you are given a role, take some time to think about the following:

• What is your character’s circumstance or story? What has happened to them in the past and how do they feel now?
• What is their relationship to each of the other characters in the role-play?
• What do they want from the situation?

Make sure your character is not one-dimensional. We are all complex and your character needs to be too. Think of some aspects of their personality that might seem contradictory. Coming up with a character who is not simply 'good' or 'bad' will be more interesting and believable.

To be successful in your role-play, think about what you should be exploring and why. Your character is more than just a part in the plot - they will have been developed to create an emotional response of some kind, good or bad. In your role-play, keep in mind the themes and ideas of the original story and how the character has been created to help the reader or audience understand and even agree, with the themes and ideas.

It can be useful to make notes about your character before the role-play and to think of words or phrases they would be likely to use.

Example

Your role-play situation is taken from a real-life situation. Here is an example of a task:

In your neighbourhood, a grassy wooded area has been zoned for the development of a new shopping centre. A public meeting has been called to discuss this. Each member of your group should present the views of one of the following:

• the architect
• the builder
• an out of work teenager
• a local corner shop owner
• a local house owner
• a member of the local environmentalist group

You need to create and develop a role as one of the above characters.

During the role-play discussion you need to be convincing as your character. For example, if you were the builder you would be very positive about the new shopping centre being built as it would provide your employees with work. This would be good as your business will be making money.

However, if your role was the character of a local shop owner you would not be happy with the new shopping centre being built as this may threaten your business and your family will have less money to live on. It will also affect your local community who will have to travel further to get their shopping, which could be difficult for the elderly.

In any role you need to use verbal and non-verbal techniques - like body language, eye-contact, tone of voice and gestures - to make your character more convincing.

Always spend some time thinking about how your character would react and what their point of view would be, as this will help you to develop your ideas beyond the most obvious ones.