THE EFFECT OF USING ROLE-PLAY ON IRANIAN EFL LEARNERS’ SPEAKING ABILITY

The present study investigated the effect of role-play as a classroom activity on Iranian EFL learners’ speaking ability. This study tried to determine whether or not using role-play activities in speaking classrooms might enhance a more acceptable speaking ability in Iranian EFL learners at the intermediate level. To answer this question, 60 intermediate language learners in Shokouh Language Institute in Bandar Anzali were randomly selected via administering an OPT to 100 language learners. Then, they were divided into experimental and control groups. A pre-test of speaking including 10 questions was administered to both groups, and the participants were asked to answer them orally. The experimental group was taught speaking in lieu of the targeted role-play activity while the control group was taught speaking with respect the existing methods. After five sessions of the treatments, the post-test of speaking was administered in which the participants in both groups were asked to answer the posttest questions. The data was analyzed through calculating a t-test and ANCOVA coefficient. The results indicated that the means of the two groups were significantly different.