Role-Playing Adventures for Content-Based EFL Courses

American Studies:

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• Federal Government & Failure of Reconstruction
• Stock Market Crash of 1929

Presenter:

Eric Gondree

Overview

• Introduction:
• My (Former) University’s Program
• American Studies
• My Social Studies Background
• Argument & Research

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• Role-playing Activity 1:
• Federal Government & Failure of Reconstruction

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• Role-playing Activity 2:
• Stock Market Crash of 1929

My (Former) University’s English Program

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• Intensive, skills-based immersion course.

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• Primary focus on:
• The Four skills
• Study abroad preparation

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• Required course: American Studies

American Studies

• Broad overview of U.S. culture and society
• Objectives:
• Provide opportunities for reading and using English, including new vocabulary
• Explain major social and political currents in the U.S., including major historic figures and events
• Employ writing skills to write a variety of paragraphs

My Social Studies background:

• 2007: Social Studies Initial Teaching Certification for NY State, grades 7 – 12 (SS training at Buffalo State College)

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• 2007 – 2009: Substitute Social Studies teaching for western NY public school districts

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• Personal interest in history and Social Studies teaching

Argument:

• Some teaching methods for middle school Social Studies can be adapted for content-based American culture courses for learners of English

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• One method common to both Social Studies and language-teaching: Fun Role-Playing activities

Research:

• Teaching content on foreign cultures can be a practical vehicle for language instruction (Kiji and Kiji, 1993)
• One objective of language-teaching is to aid students in interacting with people from foreign cultures where the target language (TL) is spoken

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• Role-Playing is a recommended activity for both Social Studies (Chilcoat, 1996) and for language teaching (Nation & Yamamoto, 2012).
• Role-Play highlights the affective content of history
• Example of “creative use” in the Four Strands of language teaching

Role-Play: Intro to U.S. federal govt.

• Objective: Introduce 3 branches of U.S. Federal Government, checks & balances.
• Materials: Labels, magnets, papers with ‘YES’, ‘NO’, ‘VETO’, ‘BILL’ / ‘LAW’ on back, ‘CONSTITUTIONAL’ / ‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL’ on back, etc.
• Procedure:
• Choose 3, 5 or 7 (odd #’s) students to represent legislative, 1 for executive, 1 for judicial branches
• Give each group appropriate papers
• Lead through role-play of process of bill -> a law -> court challenge
• Debriefing

What was the Federal Conflict in Reconstruction?

• ‘Radical’ Republicans in Congress clashed with President Andrew Johnson over Reconstruction reforms in postwar South (1865-1869).
• ‘Radicals’ wanted extensive reforms, Johnson wanted lenient reforms

Why was it important?

• Led to unsuccessful impeachment of Johnson; contributed to failure of Reconstruction reforms.
• Helps to explain the destruction of African-American civil rights and persistence of racism (i.e.: segregation, KKK violence, disenfranchisement, etc.) after slavery

Role-play: U.S. Federal Govt. and Failure of Reconstruction

• Objective: Introduce how branches of U.S. Federal government conflicted during Reconstruction in late 1860s and 1870s
• Materials: Labels, small magnets, papers with ‘YES’, ‘NO’, ‘VETO,’ ‘Fight the KKK’, ‘Protect Black Voting Rights’, ‘New Southern State Governments,’ etc.
• Procedure:
• Choose 5 students to play as Legislative branch. 1 for Executive, 1 for Judicial
• Demonstrate Reconstruction�conflict, using presidential vetoes

Role-Play 1: U.S. Federal Govt. and Failure of Reconstruction

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• Let’s do the activity!

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• Please save your comments for the end of the presentation.

Role-Play: 1929 Stock Market Crash

• Risky stock speculation, often financed by borrowing, resulted in a financial panic on October 24, 1929.
• This panic is often regarded as the start of the Great Depression which would last for roughly the next decade.

Why was it important?

• Followed by global depression
• Recent analogies: End of Japan’s ‘Bubble economy’ in 1990 – 1991, China’s Summer 2015 stock market collapse, Fall 2008 ‘Lehman Shock,’ etc.

Role-Play: 1929 Stock Market Crash

• Objective: Simulate stock market panic
• Materials: stock certificates, play money (lots!), whiteboard, calculators, accounting worksheet
• Procedure:
• Students begin with different amounts of money (1/3^rd rich, 1/3^rd middle and 1/3^rd poor), model target English phrases for buying and selling
• Students buy stock certificates at $20/share
• On whiteboard, teacher gradually ups price to $500/share in approx. 10 turns
• Students trade certificate, using target phrases (Offer loans for stock purchases, if needed.)
• Price crashes to $10 on last turn, students make final trade
• Final accounting/debriefing with accounting worksheet

Role-Playing: Stock Market Crash

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• Let’s do the activity! (Requires some preparation!)

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• Please save your comments for the end of the presentation.

Pros of Role-Play:

• Students can do memorable exercises which teach lessons on challenging historical subjects

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• Students can practice new vocabulary (Congress, veto, stock market, phrases for buying and selling)

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• Students can have fun!

Cons of Role-play:

• Activities require some preparation, the first time may be awkward

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• Students may be unsure of procedures at first; may require teacher modeling and occasional prompts

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• Stock market game may be quicker (and more chaotic) than planned; teacher may encourage “risk-averse” student-investors and give loans

Thank you for attending!

Questions? Comments?

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This PPT available at: http://eric.gondree.com

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References:

Chilcoat, G. (1996). Drama in the social studies classroom: a review of the literature. Journal of Social Studies Research, 20(2), 3-17.

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Kiji, M. and Kiji, Y. (1993). Using content-based instruction to improve vocabulary retention. The Language Teacher, 17(1), 3-5.

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Nation, P., & Yamamoto, A. (2012). Applying the four strands.

International Journal of Innovation in English Language Teaching and Research, 1(2), 167-181.