The Use of Role Play in Enhancing Speaking Skill: The Perception of Polytechnic Students in The Communicative English Class

Abstract

This research was aimed at finding out whether role play conducted during Communicative English class at Politeknik Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin has found a place in improving speaking skills by looking at the opinions of students. It is known that role play provides an opportunity for students to practise real-life conversations. Hence, role play is described as a real-world scene where students are assigned roles and become acquainted with the character's identity so they can choose a role that fits their character. The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of the students towards role play methods and identify how role play affects students' communicative abilities. 60 students from the Communicative English 2 class made up the participants. They completed a set of questionnaires with 20 items, and the data was analysed using SPSS version 28. The study's findings revealed that most of the students agreed that role play has several positive effects on their speaking skills, such as making them feel more confident, expanding their vocabulary, and improving their pronunciation. In addition to using this technique, we believe that students engage more actively and enjoy themselves when performing role play while learning English. In conclusion, this study showed that role play offers many benefits for students in the Communicative English class.