Investigating EFL learners’ speaking achievement taught

by modified role play at English speaking class

Siti Farhana 1, Flora Flora2, Muhammad Sukirlan3

English Department, Faculty of Education, Lampung University, Indonesia
Correspondence: [email protected]

Abstract
This study investigated the effect of modified role play on students’
speaking achievement. There were 28 students involved in the research.
The sample was divided into two categories, one of which was designated
as experimental and the other as control. Statistical analysis was used to
interpret the data derived from the speaking test. The data were collected
using pre and post-test. The pretest was administered at the start of the
treatment, and again after 3 meetings of modified Role Play. In conducting
the research, the researcher used a speaking test rubric to evaluate the
students’ speaking achievement which covered five components of
speaking, such as fluency, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and
comprehensibility. The results showed that The mean score of
experimental group in post-test and control group were significantly
different. The mean score of post-test in experimental group (24,571) was
higher than control group (20,143).The findings indicated that the
students in the experimental group had performed better than students in
control group.

Keywords: modified role play, speaking achievement, EFL learners

Introduction
Speaking is one of the skills in English language, it is fundamentally an
instrument act. An act of communication through speaking is an effective way to
deliver the ideas directly and it can prevent the misunderstanding in
communiation. Chaney (1998) pointed out that speaking is the process of
constructing and exhanging the meaning through the use of verbal and non-
verbal symbols in various situations. Speaking is one of the most substantial skills
among all four language skills, because the person who learns a language is called
the user of that language (Ur, 1996). The purpose of learning a language is the
way people can implement it as a communication tool. For a long time, students
do drill practice and memorize the conversations, but now they should learn how

AKSARA: Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra 22:1 (2021), 85 – 104. DOI : dx.doi.org/10.23960/aksara/v22i1.pp85-104
P-ISSN: 1411-2051 / E-ISSN: 2620-3928 | Universitas Lampung
http://jurnal.fkip.unila.ac.id/index.php/aksara
Siti Farhana , Flora, & Muhammad Sukirlan

to express their opinions. However, learning to speak is assured not easy. Pollard
(2008) pointed out that the most difficult aspects for students to master is
speaking skill (p.34). Spoken English is an aspect that is difficult for students to
master because they do not have sufficient knowledge of English (environmental
factors), rarely use spoken English practice in daily life (they can communicate in
their native language instead of English), and feel embarrassed to produce the
words. In addition, Harris (1981) defines spoken language as an obscure skill that
demand to be used with various competence at the same time (p. 81). In speaking,
there are 5 aspects that must be learned and mastered in order to communicate
properly. There are pronunciation, grammar, fluency, vocabulary, and
comprehension. Richards and Rodgers (2001) believe that learners will
encounter some types of problems when learning ESL oral skills (p. 160). One of
the problems is that students’ take too long to construct the words.
In short, English teaching activities need to adapt to an environment that
encourages students to actively speak up in the class as well as boost students'
confidence in speaking. To achieve the learning aim, the teacher should be
innovative in selecting teaching methods that enable students to speak up more.
Cook (2008) suggests using activities thatforce the students to use
communication strategies whether they want to or not. According to Bilbrough
(2007) students need to practice to communicate using language. In addition,
Scrivener (2005) also pointed out that it is important empowering and
encouraging students to speak because it will be a beneficial thing when students
can communicate by using language learned. Furthermore, Richard and
Renandya (2002) discovered that communication derives from interaction, so
teachers should encourage students to communicate openly and provide them
with appropriate topics, with a discussion or phrase acceptance process serving
as the key to teaching the language of communication. In short, teaching English
must include an environment that allows students to engage in speaking as well
as a meaningful and adaptable activity in many situations. Role play is one of the
practices that encourage students to communicate.
Role play is an acting out technique that requires students to play a role in
certain situation and allows students to "become" anyone or imagine a specific
situation, with students being able to improvise the dialogue or create statements
and scenarios as in the real world. Role play is a strategy that force students to
perform specific roles by speaking, acting, and sharing (Altun, 2015). Meanwhile,
Qing (2011) found that role playing is defined as a simulation of real-life scenarios.
Communication skills are built through role play, and students are encouraged to
master them through interaction exercises (Afdillah, 2015). The study was
proposed by Arifin and Russia (2013). They explored how role-playing would help
students develop their speaking skills. High school students were the research
sample. The result showed that the students' speaking ability improved after
implementing role playing. In addition, the use of role play in teaching speaking

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 Investigating EFL learners’ speaking achievement taught by modified role play at English
speaking class

provides a fun and engaging environment that enables students to share their
ideas and opinions. Another study on the implementation of role playing was
proposed by Krebt (2017). The study investigated the impact of the use of role
playing in teaching speaking. University students are an example of students. The
study divided the participants into two groups: experimental and control. There
were two lessons and a discussion held during the study. According to the
findings, students in the experimental group improved more than those in the
control group. This suggests that incorporating role play into the classroom will
provide students with a significant amount of speaking practice, allowing them to
develop their speaking abilities.
Many previous studies have explored the importance of applying role play
techniques to the student. Altun (2015) investigated the use of role playing in the
classroom. He discovered that role play can provide a relaxing environment in
which students can enjoy using language. The results showed that role play
enables learners to gain confidence, strengthens motivation and promotes the
speaking skills of language learners. Another study is promoted by Rahman,
Abdul & Maaruf (2018) that examined the effect of role play to improve students’
speaking achievement. The result showed that the students favoured the role-
playing technique. Furthermore, the results of the observation revealed that the
students seemed braver and more optimistic while speaking. This is evidenced by
their participation in class conversations, discussions, pre-class performances,
pronunciation, fluency and a sense of confidence in speaking.
Although the theoretical background of role-playing assumes that there
are many advantages of role-playing in English classrooms, only some researches
have shed light on the students’ sides concerning role play activity. In contrast to
the the positive result of role play, some limitations in role play strategy need to
be investigated. Huang (2008), Livingstone (1983), Shaftel et al. (1967)
mentioned the main steps of role-playing into four steps which are teacher
preparation, students' preparation, role-play, and debriefing. In the third step of
role-play activity according to Milarisa (2018) Some lecturers believe that there
are too many disadvantages in using role-playing. For example, the activities
requires a lot of time and cause embarrassment for students, they might be afraid
of being laughed at by their peers, or they might assume they have lost control of
the classroom. Benabadji (2007) also hinted that the problem of class
management in role-playing arises when only a few students participate in role-
playing and lose control of the class, and when all students do not interact
spontaneously, learning opportunities will be reduced. Various obstacles to role-
playing include the time limit of practice, the difficulty of writing interesting
scripts, the active participants, encountering negative reactions when recruiting
voluntary actors/actresses, and redundancy in the game (when the students
forget the dialogue) and also audience boredom (Altun, 2015).

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Overcoming the problems in role play activity, there is a need to add a new
procedure in role play to develop the students’ ability to communicate. There are
a variety of materials available to help students develop their speaking skills.
Successful communication especially role play requires "turn-taking"-skills and
meaningful real-life communicative tasks. These can be trained through IMPROV
because turn-taking is an essential mechanism of IMPROV. IMPROV is a
theatrical performance without a given storyline and dialogue. IMPROV is
defined by unplanned collaborative performance (Halpern, Close, & Johnson,
1994) where process and product occur (Sawyer, 2000; Sowden, Clements,
Redlich, & Lewis, 2015). This material and games have been used in several fields
such as business, company, and workshop for leadership training. IMPROV
exercises prepare you for the turn-taking that's required when you speak to
someone in the real world because you're simultaneously sharpening your
listening and speaking skills. According to Florea (2011), improvisational
activities like IMPROV help students achieve three key goals while speaking:
student pronunciation improves, correct usage of a grammatical structure is
strengthened, and vocabulary practice is increased. The structure of IMPROV
supports instructional strategies and approaches that successfully engage as well
as re-engage students with a history of failure or who have become marginalized
(Smith & McKnight, 2009; Yaffe, 1989). IMPROV card is used in the middle of a
conversation. In general role play, the students will face defining situations for
the role they take. IMPROV card is filled with situations or scenarios. The
IMPROV card is like the situation skit card for general role play. The difference is
the general roleplay will use the card in the beginning before dialogue starts, but
the IMPROV card will be used in the middle of a conversation. The students will
take the role as usual and do the conversation but in the middle, they will get an
IMPROV card based on the real situation life for making the role play more
interesting.
The implementation of improvisation techniques may bring some benefits.
According to Berlinger (2000), improvisation would encourage students to
generate informative and comprehensive ideas, extend their vocabulary,
regularly practice language skills, and develop greater fluency, all while learning
about different social values. The environment and culture of the environment,
participating in such activities can enhance students’ confidence in their learning
ability, which is an important part of successful language learning. Besides,
Aswad (2017) also proved that improvisations technique can improve students’
oral English skills. According to the results of the evaluation, the students' oral
performance increased. Roleplay has been integrated with a variety of materials
and technologies. A study from Krisdiana, Irawati, and Kadarisman (2018)
conducted research on the integration of role playing and word cards. Research
findings show that the combination of role-playing and vocabulary cards can help
improve students’ oral communication skills. Another study from Fongl,

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 Investigating EFL learners’ speaking achievement taught by modified role play at English
speaking class

Bhattacharyyal, and Nordin (2018) examined the effectiveness of the "Time Out"
role play technique hat improves speaking activity in ESL class. The
researchers used a qualitative study design in which 94 students from a
secondary school in Perak (Grades 4 and 5) were exposed to this task in the
classroom. The findings of this study revealed that time-out role-playing is
effective at achieving the goals outlined in the Oral Proficiency in English for
Secondary Schools (OPS-English) and the National ESL Communication
Aspirations. The result from the previous study shows positive effect by
combining role play with other material and technique. Unfortunately, the
combination of role play and improvisation has not been explored yet since it is
indicated as improvised role play. With the innovation of IMPROV activity such
as IMPROV card, the result of students' speaking skill can be different.
In short, the implementation of role play in teaching speaking needs to be
modified to see broad spectrum of speaking in the class and to make
communication-based on real-life situation. This is the purpose of using
communication in daily basis. So, the students can interact naturally. Hence, the
procedures are divided into three core steps; (1) Role Play with the role and
conversation, (2) IMPROV card will be given in the middle of the conversation,
and the last (3) result of the conversation.
Concerning the explanation and the previous research above, a modified
role-play strategy will motivate students' speaking activity that Role Play provides
them a clear way to express the idea freely and use the imagination in different
contexts and situations about their oral utterances deeply. Therefore, the
researcher proposes a modified Role Play strategy, which is in line with the
approach of Role Play and IMPROV card, to make the output better. It will also
stimulate students' ideas in speaking.

Literature review
Role Play
Ladousse (1995: 5) explained that when students take on a "character," they are
playing a specific role in a specific situation (self or others). "Playing" refers to
students acting out a part in a safe setting, where they are encouraged to be as
imaginative and fun as possible. In role-playing, participants represented and
experienced certain types of roles known in daily life (Scarcella and Oxford in
Tompkins, 1998). Students pretend to be in various social environments and play
various social roles. In role-playing activities, teachers provide learners with
information, such as who they are, their thoughts or feelings (Harmer, 1984: 352).
In addition, Ladousse (1995: 5) stated in his book that role-playing will build self-
confidence rather than destroy it. This means that they assume that all learners
will enjoy it and will not feel any tension. However, we also need to treat learners
as individuals with different personalities and learning styles, which may affect

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their performance. This is consistent with Dornyei (2005: 25), who believes that
individual differences in second language acquisition and use are more important
than mother tongue learning because we find that second language learners have
greater differences in learning outcomes and language use characteristics Higher
than their L1 counterparts. They assume "characters" in the dialogue, just like in
real life. The learner has the opportunity to take action and interact. It encourages
their thinking and creativity. In a given situation or environment, it also requires
students to exert their imagination in order to play an important role. The second
type of role is where the students play their roles in different situations that may
or may not have had direct experience. Examples in this category are customer
complaints or passengers requesting information. The third type is a common
situation that can trigger students to respond directly and it is easy to play
because the teacher has such a wide range of indirect experiences for them.
Ladousse (1995: 6-7) explains several reasons why we use role-play in speaking
activity. They are:
1. Role play will bring a variety of perspectives into the classroom.
2. Role play situates students in a situation where they need to use and develop
the language in stages. These stages are necessary to deepen the relationship, but
are often overlooked in our curriculum.
3. Some people learn English as the preparation for a specific role in their lives.
4. Role play helps many shy students by providing them with masks.
5. The most major point to use role play is that it is enjoyable.

Modified Role Play

Role-playing strategies have been used for a long time, and many experts have
developed role-playing strategies. According to Livingstone (1983), there are
"role-play checklists": selection, preparation, class role-play preparation, role-
play and follow-up. Richard (in Tompkins, 1985): A different method was used.
He proposed six steps for role-playing: initial tasks, model dialogue, learning to
practice role-playing with role cards, follow-up, and repeating sequences.
Ladousse (1987, in Tompkins) also has a different role-playing program, which
she calls "The Island Game", with 11 role-playing factors, including level, time,
goal, language, organization, preparation, and warm-up. , Procedures, follow-up
measures, instructions and changes.
The steps for role play by several experts are a bit the same as for
preparation, role play and feedback. These 3 steps are the main elements of your
role-play strategy. One of the biggest challenges with the role play technique is to
get all learners to participate and be truly involved. Somehow in the 'role-play or
role-play' stage, the researcher found problems with student participation.
Sometimes for advanced learners this technique will be boring, and for lower
learners the role player will be like a robot. they have no intention of naturally

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 Investigating EFL learners’ speaking achievement taught by modified role play at English
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engaging in conversation.To overcome those problems, the researcher will

modified the step in role play with improv card.
IMPROV comes from improvisation theatre activity. IMPROV is a theatrical
performance without a specific plot and dialogue. IMPROV is defined as an
unplanned collaborative activity (Halpern, Close, & Johnson, 1994) in which
processes and products take place (Sawyer, 2000; Sowden, Clements, Redlich &
Lewis, 2015). This material and games have been used in many areas such as
business, company and leadership training workshops. IMPROV exercises
prepare students for the reordering that is required when they are talking to
someone in the real world as improve the listening and speaking skills at the same
time. The IMPROV framework supports strategies and teaching methods that can
successfully attract and re-attract students with a history of failure or
marginalization (Smith & McKnight, 2009; Yaffe, 1989). IMPROV card is filled
with situation or scenarios. In the IMPROV card, it is like the situation skit card
for general role play. The difference is the general role play will use the card in
the beginning before dialogue start, but IMPROV card will be used in the middle
of conversation. The students will take the role as usual and do the conversation
but in the middle they will get IMPROV card based on the real situation life for
making the role play more interesting. the implementation of improvisations
technique can yield many benefits for students. In additionAltun (2015)
conducted a case study on the use of role-playing activities in order to determine
the benefits of such activities for language learning. Role-playing games,
according to others, will provide students with a calming atmosphere while also
allowing them to enjoy the enjoyment of using the language. The results of the
survey indicate that role-playing activities help students develop their self-
confidence, motivation, and oral expression skills in foreign language learners.
Aliakbari and Jamalvandi (2010) pointed out that by using role-playing, second
language learners can experience various actual situations of using languages and
words. As their mastery of the language improves, they can be easily apply the
language to new situations. Improvisational exercises enhance the grammatical
structure, and when students understand the reasons for the exercises, they
usually participate well (Pamela, 2011: 48-49). Improvisational exercise
tehnique push the student to utilize a number of skills at once. This is why
this strategy can stimulate students' oral activities. Role-playing can provide
them with a clear way to express their ideas freely, and use their oral expressions
deeply to exert their imagination in different contexts and situations. Therefore,
the researcher proposes modified Role Play strategy, which is in line with the
approach of Role Play and improv card, in order to make the output better. It will
also stimulate students’ idea in speaking.

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Procedures of Teaching Speaking through modified Role Play

strategy
These steps in modified Role Play strategy are combination of Huang (2008).
The integrated procedures can be described as follows:
Prepare Class for Role Play
a. The teacher provides some samples of Role Play Activity. It concludes
situation or event that represent some aspect of reality.
b. Students are asked to mention some activities that happen in their real
life.
c. The teacher defines the problem, situation, and role clearly.
d. The teachers tells students about Improv card that they will get in the
middle of role play
e. The teachers gives the example of Improv card and tells student to
react based on the card they get. For example “you are sick, you get
fever” so the students have to react in that situation and continue the
conversation.

Give clear instructions

a. The teacher chooses the situation according to the material to be
discussed.
b. The teacher explained and exemplified the situation to play.
c. The teacher will explain the vocabulary, sentences and dialogue needed
for the role-playing situation.
d. The teacher divides the students into groups or pairs

Act out
a. students are asked to practice with their partner
b. students are asked to assume the roles and spontaneously “live” the
situation
c. the teacher asks some of the students to practice in front of the class
d. the teacher gives improv card in the middle of role play
e. the students are asked to react with that situation and modify the role
play

Discussion and Evaluation

a. Students are asked to answer a few basic information about the role-
playing activity.
b. Students are asked to re-enact the role plays
c. Students are given the task of translating the role plays into their native
language.

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 Investigating EFL learners’ speaking achievement taught by modified role play at English
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In considering the original model design and the modified one, the researcher
conducts the two designs of role play Technique, in which the designs are
different. The researcher develops two parts, it is by adding the IMPROV card.

Methods
Participants
The population of this research is the students at the pre-intermediate level who
have passed elementary class for 3 months in the English daily conversation class
of Just Speak course. There are six classes; each class consists of 10-12 students.
The writer used two classes as the basis for picking the participant in the research.
The classes were chosen by using purposive sampling.

Instruments
In collecting data, the researcher administrated a speaking test. The speaking test
here, the researcher asked the students to describe people in 2 minutes. the theme
for the pre test was entertainer and the theme for the post test was politician. the
speaking test was did as twice times beforeand after giving material. The data
were collected after the giving instruments of speaking test.

Data analysis
The researcher used quantitative data analysis to interpret the data gathered,
according to the types of data gathered. The author evaluated the data for and
research question in order to explicitly answer it while evaluating the collected
data. Furthermore, after assessing its normality, a repeated measure test was
used to assess the difference between the speaking pre- and post-tests. The
Independent Group T-test was used to compare the post-test findings for both
groups. Finally, the researcher drew conclusions from the data.

Results and discussions

Improvement of the Students’ Speaking Achievement after the
Students were Taught through Modified Role Play
Speaking pretest and posttest were administered to examine students’
performance in speaking, before and after the treatment in each class. The tests
administered took form of describing people with the topic of entertainer and
politician. Therefore, the students were required to compose a monologue based
on the topic. Each class (control and experimental classes) had different
treatment with similar material. Students in control class were taught by original
Role Play. While in experimental class, students were taught by using modified

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Role Play. Here is the explanation of speaking achievement analysis shown in

table 1.

Table 1 Students’ Speaking achievement

Control Class Experimental Class Interpretation
No Interval
Pre Post Pre Post
1 41 – 47 4 0 2 0 Poor
2 48 – 54 6 0 5 0 Poor, fair
3 55 – 61 2 0 5 0 sufficient
4 62 – 68 1 4 2 1 sufficient
5 69 – 75 1 5 0 1 good
6 76 – 82 0 5 0 9 good
7 83 – 89 0 0 0 2 Very good
8 90 – 96 0 0 0 1 Excellent

Table 1 shows the improvement of students’ speaking achievement

between two tests (pretest and posttest) in each class (experimental class and
control class). The data shows that most of students from each class in pretest
were below the speaking standard score (61). This means all the students were
not ready enough to have a speaking test which is in form of describing people.
However, students got better in speaking achievement after the treatments.
During the pretest, in control class most of the students (10 students) got
speaking score between 41 until 54. While in experimental class, there were 10
students. Then, the student who got the highest score in the pretest are in the
fourth interval. In control class, there were 2 students passed and got score
between 62 and 75. While in experimental class, there were 2 students who are in
the fourth interval. The first interval (the lowest interval), there were 4 students
(in control class) and there were 2 students (in experimental class). However,
over the five meetings, students got better in speaking achievement after the
treatments.
The implementation of Role Play, during speaking pretest, the students
were below the speaking standard with most of students are in the second interval
(48 – 54). However during speaking posttest, there was improvement of students’
speaking achievement after the treatments. All of students achieved score above
the standard (4 students achieved score 62 – 68, 5 students achieved score 69-
75, and 5 students achieved score 76 – 82). Most students were placed in the fifth
and sixth interval which interpreted as good score.
While in the implementation of Modified Role Play, during the speaking
pretest, most of the students are below standard (60). However, after the
treatments, all of students got score above the standard. Most of the students
scored around standard (76 – 82). In addition, there are 2 students who get
scored 83 – 89. Moreover, there is only one student who scored the highest
interval (90 – 96). To examine the difference of students’ speaking achievement

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in each class and each test, the data were analyzed for its normality significance
first. It is used to examine whether the data were normally distributed or not. The
normality test was used to determine if the data were distributed or not. The data
were checked for normality using Shapiro-Wilk (SPSS 25). The researcher
concluded that the data from this study were normally distributed. Based on the
result of the normality data test, it was found that the results were as follow: .248,
.894, .342, .666 for pretest of control class and experimental class, and also
posttest of control class and experimental class respectively. Since the significant
level is higher than 0.05, it could be assumed that the data were normally
distributed.

Table 2 Normality of Speaking Test

Class Shapiro-Wilk
Static df Sig.
Speaking Control Class
Pre test ,924 14 ,248
Experimental Class 14
,971 ,894
Speaking Control Class ,924 14 ,342
Post test Experimental Class ,957 14 ,666

In addition to examine whether the post test of experimental class and

control class, the pretest of each class should be examined of their homogeneity
variance. Levene’s test was used on SPSS 25. The significant level showed that
.434, it means that the test is considered to be homogeny. Therefore, the posttest
of each class can be compared.

Table 3 Test of Homogeneity of Speaking Test

Anxiety Level Questionnaire

Levene df1 df2 Sig.
Statistic
0,632 1 26 ,434

After analyzing the normality and homogeneity of the pretest of each class,
the result of the speaking tests were analyzed to answer tested the hypotheses.
The hypothesis of the study is to examine whether there is significant difference
of students’ speaking achievement after the implementation of Modified Role
Play. Repeated measure t-test was applied to examine the difference of each test
and class. There are two pairs which are examined 1) first pair is pretest and
posttest of control class; 2) second pair is pretest and posttest of experimental
class. The independent t test was used to examined the posttest between 2 class
(experimental and control). Based on the analysis from SPSS, the result as follows
.000, .000, .010 for the first, second, and third pair respectively. Based on the

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result, it could be implied that both control and experimental class showed
significant differences between pretest and posttest (for the first and second pair).
In addition, there was improvement of students’ speaking achievement as shown
that the t-level is higher than the t-table. It shows that the t-level for the first pair
is 12,156 and for the second pair 22.481. The two t-levels are higher than the t-
table (2.145) which means there is improvement of students’ speaking
achievement. In addition, for the third pair (comparison of the posttest between
control and experimental class, it shows that there is significant difference for
each class since the significant level is lower than the alpha level (.011 < .05). In
addition, the students taught by modified role play showed better improvement
than the students taught by original podcast procedure. It could be inferred from
the t-level is bigger than the t-table (2.720 > 2.145). Therefore, it could be implied
that the implementation of modified Role Play in teaching speaking is better than
original Role Play in improving students’ speaking achievement.

Table 4 Difference of Speaking Test

Mean t df Sig. (2-tailed)
Pair 1 Pretest
20,143 12,156 13 ,000
Control Class Posttest
Pair 2 Pretest
24,571 22,481 13 ,000
Experimental Class Posttest

Table 5 Independent T-Test

Levene's Test
for Equality
of Variances t-test for Equality of Means
95%
Confidence
Sig. Interval of the
(2- Mean Std. Error Difference
F Sig. t df tailed) Difference Difference Lower Upper
Score Equal 0,632 0,434 2,720 26 0,011 6,143 2,259 1,500 10,786
variances
assumed
Equal 2,720 25,949 0,012 6,143 2,259 1,499 10,786
variances
not
assumed

After comparing each test in each class, it could be inferred that the
implementation of Role Play can improve students’ speaking achievement.
Moreover, experimental class which was taught through modified Role Play
shows better improvement of students’ speaking achievement.

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In addition, the difference of the students’ speaking achievement in each

aspects after being taught through Original Role Play and modified Modified Role
Play was also investigated by the researcher. The researcher focused on aspects
(Pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension). The data
were obtained from the students' speaking achievement.

EXPERIMENTAL CONTROL
Aspects of
Mean of Mean of Mean of Mean of
Speaking
Pretest Posttest Gain Pretest Posttest Gain
Pronunciation 11.25 15.85 4.6 10.78 14.75 3.97
Grammar 10.57 15.53 4.96 10.32 14.10 3.78
Vocabulary 10.5 15.57 5.07 10.42 14 3.58
Fluency 10.57 15.64 5.07 10.32 14.35 4.03
Comprehension 11.10 15.92 4.92 10.5 15.21 4.71
Total 53.99 78.51 24.62 52.34 72.41 20.07

From the table above, it can be seen that the students’ speaking
achievement for both control and experimental class have significant
differences.The students who are taught with the modified Role Play have the
higher increases in all aspect respectively than the students who are taught with
the original Role Play

Discussion on how students' speaking abilities improved after they

were taught in a modified role play.
Having analyzed the result of students’ speaking achievement in pretest and
posttest from each class (experimental and control class), it is found that there
was significant difference of students’ speaking achievement. In addition, there
was improvement of students’ speaking achievement after the implementation
Role Play and modified Role Play. However, there was a difference of students’
speaking achievement improvement from each class. In the process of teaching
both class, the researcher used online platform such as zoom and google meet.
The researcher adapted the situation because of coronavirus. Coronavirus or
COVID-19 has attacked the world since the end of 2019. This virus was first
discovered in Wuhan, Hubei, China. there are 95,124 people are exposed
worldwide (CNN, 2020). As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire system
has been changing. In particular, education in Indonesia is being disrupted. As of
March 11, 2020, the President of the Republic of Indonesia implemented a
strategy of temporarily suspending teaching and studying in schools and colleges,
allowing students to study at home with online learning in order to break the virus
chain.

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In this research, the researcher used online platform google meet to do the
pretest and posttest since the application was already in students phone
connected with gmail. The researcher called students one by one by listing time
and name. The students had to describe someone by turning on their camera and
their eyes had to focus on camera. Surprisingly, all of students did great job and
followed the rules given. During the pretest, in both classes, it was evidenced that
most students were difficult to express their idea due to the high anxiety level and
low self-confidence that they possessed. In short, students who were influenced
by the low level of WTC would find it difficult to join the activity. Hence, this
condition resulted in the production of speaking. Students needs to have the
willingness to communicate to deal with the speaking aspects. This result is in
line with several previous study. Thousi and Khalaji (2014) has investigated the
impact on WTC on students’ speaking ability. It is found that WTC correlates
significantly with students’ speaking ability. It was evidenced by the result of
pretest that showed the students from both of the class had difficulty in arranging
word, speaking fluently, and using proper structure of the sentences spoken. In
addition, during pretest the activity, most of the students were so nervous and
not confident. actually all of students actually have passed the elementary level
that make students have the capability and confidence to speak up, because of
pandemic they do not practice their English and ended up lose the feeling. This
condition would trigger such condition where students lost their interest and
capability that they had before.
After the implementation of Role Play, students showed better speaking
achievement. The implementation Role Play as the teaching technique aid
students’ obstacles in producing the oral production such as pronunciation and
selecting diction as it is believed that role play provides authentic material such
as vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation in a contextual situation
(Fitria&Vianty& Petrus, 2015; Gromik, 2008; Thomas, 2009 p.342; Fernando,
2007). In addition, those benefits are considered as a comprehensible input to
students which enhance their confidence and decrease their speaking anxiety
(Constantine, 2007). In addition, the implementation of role play as the teaching
activity could promote students speaking achievement. this result is inline with
some previous research that apply role play as their teaching activity (Shen
&Suwanthep, 2011; Arifin &Rsnija, 2013; Krebt, 2017). Study of Shen
&Suwanthep (2011) applied constructive e-learning role play activity to improve
college students. In the learning activities, students solved problems, not only in
material learning, but also in integrating practical knowledge, exploring
alternatives and creative solutions. In other words, students are required to have
a new dialogue on the original basis. Research has found that the constructive
role playing of e-learning has a positive effect on improving the oral performance
of students of different language proficiency. The students did well, and they
applied what they had learned in the courses and previous studies to actively and

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 Investigating EFL learners’ speaking achievement taught by modified role play at English
speaking class

effectively engage in a positive e-learning role play. Study of Arifin &Rosnija

(2013) applied role play to improve senior highs school students’ speaking
achievement. It is found out that the implementation of role play are able to
promote students’ speaking achievement. In addition, they agreed that the use of
role play makes teaching learning activity fun and enjoyable. This situation
provides the opportunity for students to bring broader world into the classroom
activity since students are able to be different characters and they are free to play
it. Study of Krebt (2017) applied roleplay to improve college students’ speaking
achievement. They applied textual information gap where students have different
gap of information which needs to be filled up. The results of this study indicated
that the treatment used influenced the results; thus it can be concluded that the
use of role play as a classroom technique improved the performance in the
speaking test. In short, previous researchers claim that using role play as a
learning activity gives students a lot of opportunities to practice their speaking
skills while also shaping their attitude and confidence.
Although the implementation of role play in control class could give
significant difference and improvement of students speaking achievement,
during the treatment section, some students showed hesitation to join the class
and sharing their idea during the class. The students had to adapt with the
situation of having conversation online. The change of adaptation can be seen in
the first meeting when students were not comfortable to express their idea
without the sensitivity of having conversation directly face to face. After the first
meeting, they tended to be relax and understood how to do the online role play
by using the filter and background to make it real and exciting. Moreover,
students tended to feel bored when they practiced the dialogue in the same
situation. The fully participation of students is one of the biggest challenges of the
role playing technique. Some of students were strong participant as well as
dominant in the conversation that demotivated the others to speak up more.
There was imbalance in the group when the other did not give any perspective so
the conversation would not be exciting.
On the other hand, The implementation of improv activity provide
students with enormous chance to access native language aspects such as
vocabulary, fluency, comprehension. It is in line with the theory from Florea
(2011) an improvisational activity can be a fun and effective way to attract
students. It not only gives them grammatical structure, but it also helps them to
communicate with one another and improve their listening, grammar, and
vocabulary skills. Students normally engage well in improvisational activities as
they understand the reasons for the exercises. Casteleyn (2018) stated that
improvisational training is also very interesting, and by refuting them with a more
positive attitude may change the perception of problematic public speech.
Students can develop their oral expression skills (voice, body language, etc.) and
learn how to make decisions and take chances through improvisation, which can

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help minimize the anxiety associated with public speaking and provide
opportunities to inspire students to be bold in public speaking. In addition, this
result is also in line with several previous study (Fauzan, 2014; Hadeli & Eviarni,
2017). Fauzan (2014) conducted a research on implementing an improvisational
technique to improve university students. Drama improvisation is a great oral
teaching technique. It will help students develop their speaking skills. In English
learning, he believes that fluency and accuracy are equally significant. Improving
drama is extremely necessary and can help students develop their fluency. Then
there's the matter of time and procedure to boost students' accuracy. According
to the results of the research, it can be concluded that improvisation can improve
the spoken language ability of the English Department of students of Widyagama
Mahakam University Samarinda. Another research is done by Hadeli & Eviarni
(2017) implemented Improvisation technique to identify the effect on senior high
school students. There were significant differences in the oral expression ability
of the experimental class students who express impromptu skills and the oral
expression ability of the control class students who accept conventional skills.
Impromptu skills were a good way for students to develop their oral English
abilities, especially when expressing interests and giving opinions. They can
speak a lot in English if their vocabulary and self-confidence expand. Speaking
English more has helped them boost their fluency dramatically. Then, improving
their fluency is a good way to develop their speaking skills. Then, their fluency is
an effective way to improve their speaking ability. In short, they agreed that the
implementation of improv gives students’ chance to access the native sources and
also promotes students’ speaking proficiency.
In addition, the implementation modified Role Play provides students
with opportunities to practice their language skills. In addition, the activity in
class enabled students to be active and make students’ speaking fluent (Toro &
Camacho-Minuche& Pinza & Paredes, 2018; Farooq, 2015). In short, the more
chances students have to practice their oral production activity the better
students oral production will have. This result is in line with several previous
research. Study from Krisdiana, Irawati, and Kadarisman (2018) conducted a
research on role playing integrated with word cards. Research findings showed
that the integration of role playing and word cards can help improve students’
communication skills. Another study conducted by Fongl, Bhattacharyyal, and
Nordin (2018) examined the effectiveness of "time-out" role-playing techniques,
which can enhance speech activities in ESL classrooms. The researchers used a
qualitative research design. 94 students (Secondary 4 and 5) from a secondary
school in Perak played this role in the classroom environment. The results of this
study showed that overtime role-playing successfully achieved the goals set in the
communication aspirations outlined in the "Secondary School Oral English
Proficiency" (OPS-English) and the "National Education Blueprint" (2013-2025).
The result from the previous studies show positive effect by combining role play

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 Investigating EFL learners’ speaking achievement taught by modified role play at English
speaking class

with other material and technique. In contrast to the previous research that
applied role play as the teaching technique, this research applied improv that
modified role play technique. In short, it could be inferred that the
implementation of modified role play is able to boost students’ confidence and
promote students speaking performance. It could be inferred that the
implementation of modified role play can improve students’ speaking better than
original role play.

Conclusions and suggestions

The implementation of each teaching program can help students improve their
speaking achievement. This study provides an understanding of the
implementation of modified role play used in the conversation class. The findings
showed that there was a significant difference in students’ speaking achievement.
all of aspects of speaking improved for both of classes but modified roleplay
showed better improvement. This research can be used as a reference technique
for teachers or lecturers to teach oral English to students. It is hoped that this
research is worthy of the knowledge of English teachers, especially in
distinguishing or choosing appropriate methods, method skills and activities to
teach speaking skills. As a concluding remark, it can be concluded that a modified
role play needs to be implemented in the classroom. It is not only useful for
students' language development, but also for their second language acquisition.
For students who speak English as a second or third language, as well as students
who speak English as their native tongue, role playing is especially beneficial for
language growth. Role playing will also develop students' communication skills
in a safe environment, as well as their vocabulary and grammar. The most
successful way to learn a language is by role-playing. Although the teacher
generously used role-playing and improvisation, students’ preferences and
practical skills were not studied here. Therefore, potential researchers should
take this into consideration for further research.

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