Use of the printable sets of Role-Play Materials shown on this page provide structure for authentic verbal interactions and exchange of goods that closely simulate real world communication. The format of the materials it quite varied, including realistic and modular props (that allow fast-food orders to be assembled to card-based role-play systems that provide structure to otherwise overly complicated role-play topics) as well as more open-ended resources, like Character Preference Cards for pizza topping preferences and hobby preferences (that provide a foundation for working together to prepare food delivery orders and design workable activity schedules.
The goal of these materials is to provide students with opportunities to build their confidence by following a commonsense step-by-step process for completing each role-play interaction, while still having enough flexibilities to personalize their role-play interactions.
Role-play activities are a type of communication practice exercise used regularly under the communicative language teaching (CLT) methodology as one of six common classroom activity types. These activities allow teachers and students to engage in a form of (primarily) verbal communication that approximates authentic real-to-life communication.
One our core goals while creating the resources listed on this page was to make authentic role-play speaking activities accessible to even beginners and near-beginners. Many of the available activities are designed to not be open-ended in format, allowing learners to succeed at completing the role-play exercises with a very minimal level of pre-learning required.
This approach aids in building confidence and providing enough repetitions of speaking practice for the learners to make quick progress in their ability to speak English.
Our approach to creating role-play materials falls into two categories.
The many goal of many of our role-play kits is to provide realistic objects for all of the noun needed to role-play making and fulfilling requests, such as placing and preparing restaurant orders, getting help while shopping at a grocery store, or preparing the necessary. Providing realistic objects for specific role-play interactions is very effective at helping students connect real-world meaning to English words and phrases.
For example, if a student asks for a hamburger during a restaurant role-play exercise, there should be an object available that accurately resembles an actual hamburger, as well as realistic objects that resemble the toppings they might want on their hamburger. If the appearance and means of interacting with the objects is realistic enough, learners’ practice communication will feel almost indistiguistable from communicating about an actual hamburger and real toppings.
For example, in our printable Medical Role-Play resource set, 18 Character Cards are provided, each with a unique combination of symptoms. By working their way through all of the cards, participants will have an opportunity to practice using every word on the activity’s vocabulary list.
