Role play - CCEA

The material on this page is designed to help you with revision and preparation for your CCEA GCSE English Language assessments. It applies to Unit 2: Speaking and listening.

• Unit 2 is a controlled assessment unit, worth 20% of your final mark
• This assessment consists of three tasks, to be completed in class:
  1. Individual presentation and interaction
  2. Discussion
  3. Role play
• In each of these three tasks, you will be assessed on your ability to:
  • Communicate clearly
  • Listen and respond to others’ ideas
  • Interact with others
  • Create and sustain different roles

Useful guidance for English Language controlled assessments can be found on the CCEA support page – select the Student Guidance tab. For further advice on controlled assessments, please consult your teacher.

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.

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 scenario 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 – such as 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.

Listen carefully when other people are speaking. For example, if someone is delivering a speech or making a point in a group discussion or debate, you need to pay close attention to the points they are making.

It can help to take notes as you listen – write a few words or images down to trigger your memory when it’s your own turn to talk.

You can show that you have been listening by building on people’s arguments. Mention a point someone has made and then add your own experience or ideas. Here are some sentence starters to help you with this:

• I agree with your point about…. however…
• I’d like to add to what you said…
• When you talked about… it made me think…
• In addition to your comments about…

Remember, you don’t have to agree with everything a speaker says but conversation of any kind is a co-operative activity and it starts to fall down when it becomes confrontational or competitive. The purpose of a discussion is to open up an issue and invite a range of opinions and interpretations. In this case, you can challenge a speaker. The following sentence starters should be useful:

• I understand what you said about… but I think…
• I disagree with your point about…
• I don’t think what you said about… is valid. I would suggest…
• When you said… I wonder whether you had considered…

Listening is as important as speaking, so avoid dominating a discussion, even if you have lots to say, and encourage others to share their views too.

You may be given a stimulus (like a piece of text or an object) as the focus of a group discussion.

If you are given a stimulus in advance, this will give you time to research your topic and to decide how you intend to respond to the stimulus you have been given.

The stimulus

The stimulus may introduce a topic of controversy and therefore encourage different points of view. For example, you may be given information regarding migration and each member of your group will need to respond to the material. Some of your class mates will agree with the material whilst others will not. This does not matter; in fact it is better if there are a variety of different viewpoints in the group as this will lead to a more interesting discussion.

Responding to the stimulus

The most effective way of responding to the stimulus is by providing a thoughtful, detailed argument. Remember to include plenty of reasons for your opinion. It is important that you include evidence to support what you say. This evidence may come in the form ofanecdotes, statistics, the opinions of other people you have talked to during your research, or quotes from books or internet sites.

Things to remember

You must present your points in a logical and clear manner. Do not worry if someone has a different point of view from you – continue to make your points in a confident way. Your comments are expected to be mature and perceptive; you should suggest reasons to explain why you have a particular point of view and you should be able to summarise your points throughout the discussion.

Being a good listener is not just about being quiet when someone is speaking. Listening skills are about actively listening to what other members of the group have to say, and then responding to the points they have made. It is perfectly acceptable to either agree or disagree with what another member of the group has said as long as you do it in the right way.

Some points to remember

Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with what someone has said, it is important that you wait until they have finished speaking before you begin talking.

Remember not to belittle other people’s opinions. You can disagree with them without trying to suggest that your opinion is the only one that counts. Some examples of appropriate things to say are:

• I agree with the point you're making, and I’d like to add…
• That is an interesting point, however I feel that…
• I can see why you believe that, but I feel…
• Although that is a very valid opinion, I feel that…
• On the other hand, it is also possible to believe that…

Sentence starters such as these will help you to put your point across in a convincing but polite manner.

It’s important to show you are an active listener. Remember to try and move the conversation forward, particularly if the discussion is beginning to falter or if the same comments are being repeated several times. See if you can pick up on the things people say, respond to them appropriately and help move the discussion forward.

An important part of your discussion work will be the ability to ask questions. This will not only help you to move the discussion forward but it will also give you an opportunity to pick up on specific things other group members have said, discover more about their opinion and respond in an in-depth manner to points they have made.

It might seem like an easy part of the discussion, but asking questions can be trickier than you think.

Different types of questions

There are two different types of questions that can be asked. These are:

Open-ended questions

Open-ended questions prompt your listener to answer in a much more detailed way. They cannot give a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, but must be prepared to provide plenty of detail and give reasons for why they believe their opinion is the correct one.

Closed questions

Closed questions are much simpler and generally require a one-word response such as ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Closed questions can be useful; sometimes a closed question can successfully force someone to commit to their opinion. For example:

Journalist: Do you think it was the right decision to sell your star footballer at this point in the season?

Football Manager: These are difficult decisions and the team remains strong going into the next match.

Here the manager has avoided directly answering yes or no. You could use this technique yourself in a discussion, to avoid answering a closed question directly.

Here are some examples of other closed questions:

• Do you think capital punishment should be abolished?
• Do you think there is too much crime in London?
• Do you think graffiti is wrong?
• If you had a choice, would you wear school uniform?

Here are examples of how you could ask the same questions in a more open-ended way that would require more detailed responses:

• Why do you think capital punishment should be abolished?
• A recent newspaper report claimed that crime in London is on the rise. Why do you think this might be the case?
• Some people claim that graffiti is a legitimate form of street art. Do you agree with this and can you give your reasons why/why not?
• Why do you think we, pupils, should be given a choice about school uniform?

Remember

If you ask open-ended questions, you will be given more information to comment on. At the same time, if you are asked an open question you must give as much detail as you can in your answer.

During a group discussion it’s important to use Standard English and speak in a clear and fluent way.

It might be useful to prepare some possible sentence starters to use whilst contributing to the discussion, or when responding to questions that you might be asked.

Here is a list of possible sentence starters for your discussion:

• Another perspective is…
• On the other hand…
• I fully believe that…
• It has been suggested that… however…
• This particular piece of evidence implies that…
• It has been put forward that… but I believe…
• Having listened to all the points that have been made, I still feel that…
• Although many people have suggested that…
• Firstly, it should be noted that…
• Despite listening to some very convincing arguments, I still believe that…
• Finally, I would like to point out that…

You must have confidence in your own opinion. Do not be afraid to say what you think, just make sure that you do it in a clear and logical way.

Top tips

• Use Standard English throughout the discussion
• Ask open-ended questions
• Give your opinion in an organised manner, providing evidence for your suggestions
• Listen carefully to the opinions of others
• Comment on what other people say in an appropriate manner
• Try to prepare a few sentence starters to help structure your response
• If the conversation falters, try to move it forward by introducing new points or by asking appropriate questions

Watch and listen to this group discussion on voting. Notice how everybody takes their turn in a calm and orderly manner.