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Translation is forbidden.
When I ask: please read the text and translate, they know how it works, from English to English using this e-dictionary. Synonyms or descriptions. For ex. Kitchen= it is a pleace where you cook

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Dizionario inglese-italiano: 175.000 parole con 290.000 significati.

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My projects are all created according to my students' wishes. That's the reason why I can't create a project during the summer

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Sometimes something explained by a classmate is easier than by the teacher. In my classes students good at English help who needs support.

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Together is easier

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Don't use theory, reality helps students understand everytihing

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Situated learning is a theory that explains an individual's acquisition of professional skills and includes research on apprenticeship into how legitimate peripheral participation leads to membership in a community of practice. Situated learning "takes as its focus the relationship between learning and the social situation in which it occurs".

The theory is distinguished from alternative views of learning which define learning as the acquisition of propositional knowledge. Lave and Wenger situated learning in certain forms of social co-participation and that, instead of asking what kinds of cognitive processes and conceptual structures are involved, they focused on the kinds of social engagements that provide the proper context and facilitate learning.

Situated learning was first proposed by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger as a model of learning in a community of practice. At its simplest, situated learning is learning that takes place in the same context in which it is applied. For example, the workplace is considered as a discernible community of practice operating as a context wherein newcomers assimilate norms, behavior, values, relationships, and beliefs.

Lave and Wenger (1991) argue that learning is a social process whereby knowledge is co-constructed; they suggest that such learning is situated in a specific context and embedded within a particular social and physical environment.

Against the prevalent view of learning that involves the cognitive process in which individuals are respectively engaged in as learners, Lave and Wenger viewed learning as participation in the social world, suggesting learning as an integral and inseparable aspect of social practice. According to their view of learning, learning is the process by which newcomers become part of a community of practice and move toward full participation in it. Learners' participation in the community of practice always entails situated negotiation and renegotiation of meaning in the world. They understand and experience the world through the constant interactions by which they reconstruct their identity (i.e., becoming a different person) and evolve the form of their membership in the community as the relations between newcomers and old-timers who share the social practice change. In their view, motivation is situated because learners are naturally motivated by their growing value of participation and their desires to become full practitioners.

Lave and Wenger assert that situated learning "is not an educational form, much less a pedagogical strategy". However, since their writing, others have advocated different pedagogies that include experiential and situated activity:

Many of the original examples from Lave and Wenger concerned adult learners, and situated learning still has a particular resonance for adult education. For example, Hansman shows how adult learners discover, shape, and make explicit their own knowledge through situated learning within a community of practice.

In the 2003 article "The Nature of Situated Learning", Paula Vincini argued that "the theory behind situated learning or situated cognition arises from the fields of psychology, anthropology, sociology, and cognitive science." She summarized:

The seminal paper "Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning" by John Seely Brown, Allan Collins, and Paul Duguid brought situated cognition to the forefront as an emerging instruction model. In this paper, the authors criticize public schooling for separating the "knowing and doing" and for treating knowledge "as an integral, self-sufficient substance, theoretically independent of the situations in which it is learned and used."
Other theorists (Jean Lave, Etienne Wenger, Lev Vygotsky, John Dewey, and J. G. Greeno) associated with situated learning theory argue that knowledge must be taught in context and not in the abstract. Learners must use tools as practitioners use them and become "cognitive apprentices" in that discipline's community and its culture.

In 1996 John R. Anderson et al. had traced back the origin of the concept to the "cognitive revolution" in the 1960s, They argued:

Following on the so-called "cognitive revolution" in psychology that began in the 1960s, education, and particularly mathematics and science education, has been acquiring new insights from psychology, and new approaches and instructional techniques based on these insights. At the same time, cognitive psychologists have being paying increasing attention to education as an area of application of psychological knowledge and as a source of important research problems. There is every reason to believe that as research in cognitive psychology progresses and increasingly addresses itself to educational issues, even closer and more productive links can be formed between psychology and mathematics education.
However, there is a tendency now to present all manner of educational opinion as bearing a stamp of approval from cognitive psychology.... as in many recent publications in mathematics education, much of what is described in that book reflects two movements, "situated learning" and "constructivism", which have been gaining influence on thinking about education and educational research.

Vincini (2003) continued to explain, that "the social interaction that occurs in communities of practice between experts and novices is crucial to the theory of situated cognition or learning. In Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, Lave and Wenger emphasize that novices begin learning by observing members of the community and then slowly move from the periphery of the community to fully participating members."

Put in terms developed by William Rankin, the major elements in situated learning are content (facts and processes of a task), context (situations, values, environmental cues), and community (the group where the learner will create and negotiate). Situated learning also involves participation (where a learner works together with others in order to solve a problem).

Situated learning deals with how one's knowledge over the course of an activity and how they create and interpret.

Content: In situated learning, no importance is given to the retention of the content. Rather, situated learning stresses reflective and higher order thinking where the results are used in solving problems faced in daily life. Situated learning is thus more application-based.

Context: Context provides a framework for the usage of the product or the result at the right time, place and situation in the social, psychological and material environment. Context creates a platform to examine the learning experiences.

Community: Community helps the learner to create, interpret, reflect and form meanings. It provides opportunities to share experiences among learners and also to interact.

Participation: It is where interchange of ideas, problem solving and engaging of the learners take place. This takes place in a social setting which includes reflecting, interpreting and negotiating among the participants of the community.

Situated learning means to have a thought and action which is used at the right time and place. In this approach, the content is learned through doing activities. It is dilemma-driven, it challenges the intellectual and psychomotor skills of a learner. Situated learning contributes to bringing about the relationship between classroom situations and real-life situations outside the classroom. In adult classroom, the conditions are so created that it is complex and unclear, from which they again experiences and they learn. There are four claims by Brown, Collins, and Dugid:

Action is grounded in the concrete situations in which it occurs.

Knowledge does not transfer between tasks.

Training by abstraction is of little use.

Learning is a social phenomenon.

To provide authenticated tasks in the learning environment: It is said that authenticated task involves two stages that are an objective and data in the setting also to the level of which students are performing the tasks which are authenticated.

Simulated apprenticeship: Students can become apprentices in a given discipline by gaining knowledge and skills.

Anchored instructions: It emphasizes the conditions laid by the situated learning. It gives a situated context to solve the problem.

Learning communities: Change of the classroom culture from more of knowledge supplying to a learning community where students focus on knowledge building and solve problems that they are interested in.

Assessment in appropriate place: It shows an individual's performance at different situations and also focuses on the process and product.

Situated learning was first projected by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger as a model of learning in a community of practice. This type of learning allows an individual (students/learner) to learn by socialization, visualization, and imitation.

Learning begins with people trying to solve problems. When learning is problem-based, people explore real-life situations to find answers, or to solve the problems. Hung's study focuses on how important being social is to learning.

In believing that learning is social, Hung adds that learners who gravitate to communities with shared interests tend to benefit from the knowledge of those who are more knowledgeable than they are. He also says that these social experiences provide people with authentic experiences. When students are in these real-life situations they are compelled to learn. Hung concludes that taking a problem-based learning approach to designing curriculum carries students to a higher level of thinking.

In the 2009 article "Rethinking education in the age of technology", Collins & Halverson argued:

Situated learning is becoming more involved with technology in ways to help individuals learn information differently than they have in the past. The model of learning a skill through technology mimics how individuals learned in the past from a professional in that skill. In the past when individuals learned about a particular topic it was done in person, in a hands-on environment. Technology makes it possible to do these same things using a computer or any other similar device. Interaction through the computer between individuals is one more way to make situated learning more successful as well as give students an opportunity to have another venue through which to learn. In fact,

Allowing students to have the opportunity to participate, interact and inject their own ideas is a way to obviously grow and make informed decisions. Gee has proven this with the use of video games. It enables the learner to build their social and communication skills as well as develop their cognition abilities. Computer-based learning software such as SimCity has permitted users to utilize situated learning by allowing them to run their own city and become dictators whereby they have to make informed decisions which will either deteriorate their people or help them thrive. As stated, more effective learning environments are built this way.

Students process information by visualizing, hearing, reasoning and reflecting so they tend to learn more easily by having models to go by or imitate. In some study cases, teachers have gone as far as to make the classroom environment as homey as possible, whether it is a computerized set up or a physical set up. It gives the students the look and feel of being at home in a comfortable setting which allows them to feel and learn freely. It has been proven to have a great impact on the students learning abilities. This is another innovative way of utilizing situated learning.

When students complete their education, they will be expected to use the skills they have learned throughout their educational career in the professional career. It is imperative that they are able to sufficiently utilize these skills to complete work goals. Through situated learning students will be able to learn the skills and also be able to accurately use the skills they have learned. Situated learning allows students to gain experience through doing in some way and from this experience they are able to be productive in their lives after they have graduated.

Situated learning continues after graduation. According to Halverson (2009):

In situations where situated learning is not possible, simulations can offer an alternative way to provide employees with an authentic learning experience. Situated learning allows employees to immediately apply what they've learned in the context of performing job-related tasks. Learning occurs among peers who perform the same function. Problem-solving and the generation of new ideas can be better supported in a social learning environment where all of the stakeholders experience the positive effects of ongoing learning. Often, the benefits of situated learning extend well beyond the immediate group of practitioners throughout the organization and the broader community. Richardson notes that, in an educational setting, teachers can use collaborative technologies in their own practice in order to gain a better understanding about how to integrate these technologies in the classroom.

Many online learning courses still use the traditional teacher-directed, textbook oriented curriculum that is compartmentalized by discipline. Many universities have begun to recognize that authentic situation learning must occur in online courses. A key aspect is to recognize that the unit itself must be an authentic activity and not just made up of disjointed activities.

Utley presents Hung's argument that:

While it may be possible for adult learners to gain knowledge and apply theories presented in other learning environments to what they experience in a real-world setting, situated learning offers an opportunity to work with others in considering how to best apply new concepts related to the specific context of their practice. While theoretical knowledge provides a foundation, the insights and skills developed through authentic practice can lead to more meaningful learning.

The increase in learning centers across the country is evidence of how the U.S., and the world really, has morphed into a society of continuing learners. Much of this learning is happening in centers described by Halverson and Collins. Examples of these learning centers, which are perfect examples of situated learning, include local libraries and job training centers. These learning centers are providing adults in particular with the kind of social interaction they need to extend their learning. This supports Hung's findings that people learn by simply being in certain situations with others. As organizations re-evaluate how they accomplish necessary workplace training with limited funds, they depend on informal learning that occurs within specific areas of practice to ensure that employees develop the skills they need to be effective.

Reliance on structured, theoretical training programs, especially offered by third-party providers, is decreasing, and companies are finding ways to facilitate authentic learning opportunities within their communities of practice. Wagner notes that financial considerations have led to fewer managers, so organizations are looking to those who actually do the work for ideas about improving their products and services.

When determining whether abstract or specific instruction are going to be more productive it is important to look at which method will be most useful to the individuals that are learning the skill. If students receive specific instruction they are going to be capable of performing those set tasks only. When students are taught abstract instruction they are exposed to more skills that will be useful in helping them obtain a variety of jobs but at the same time they may have training that is not necessarily needed. When money is "wasted" by educating individuals on things that are not needed for their future it is possible to look at the situation and realize that the monies could have been of more use in giving another individual more specific instruction.

Our students are coming out of school unprepared and it seems that if they were in an educational setting where situated learning was implemented as much as possible, they would be better prepared for their futures. Based on Wagner's research we are less prepared than other countries as far as education goes, which is not necessarily something new, but it is definitely something that seems to far from changing. When our students are put into situations where they learn by doing they most likely will be more successful than if they were just told how something needed to be done.

In the 2010 article "Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms", W. Richardson stipulated:

The act of writing in a Weblog, or 'blogging' can go a long way toward teaching skills such as research, organizations and the synthesis of ideas.

Teachers/instructors have come to realize just how important it is to utilize the web as a teaching tool for the new generation of students ( digital natives). One digital tool that can be used is a weblog. It gives the students an opportunity to think, research, and realize that they can write and have a voice that can be viewed and read by many who may or may not share the same idea. When students blog, they are creating journals/text entries which is considered to be English (writing) and reading; they also have the opportunity to utilize other learning tools such as videos, photos and other digital media.

Social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Ning allow learners, once they move beyond the personal connections, to embrace a community where they can learn from each other. Social interaction is an important part of the learning process. As technology has grown and become an integral part of the lives of children, teens and young adults, older adults have been forced to adapt. For example, as more adults have been forced to move through the job market recently, they've turned to technology to develop new skills and to find work. Even fast-food restaurants require job seekers to complete employment applications online.

Students learn in different manners and visualization or situated learning seems to be the most used of all learning styles. Students are able to mimic what they see and hear which enables them to retain information for the long term. Through visualizations of different types of computer applications; the student's knowledge is defined by the social process of interacting and doing. It allows the students to learn naturally as a result of social behavior. The computer application acts as a guide while the students learn naturally from their own experience. As always, situated learning accelerates a student learning process and ability.

Web-based learning tools provide integrated environments of various technologies to support diverse educators and learners needs via the internet. The goals of these tools is to enhance face to face instruction and make distance learning are courses available. Each of these tools offer similar components, such as course note-posting, assignments submission, quizzes and communication features. The primary motivation for developing these tools is to make it easier for instructors who have very little knowledge of HTML and web navigation to put course materials on the web. There are significant drawbacks as well of using these tools. For example, these systems course instructors and course administrators to use predetermined navigation models and course format. These constraints may have a negative impact on their flexibility and usability for administrators, teachers and students. A tool should be as such suitable for diverse courses campus-wide. Accordingly, a web-based learning tool should be able to provide facilities for courses, news and announcements, and area to store course notes and related information synchronous and asynchronous tools such as e-mail, bulletin board and chat facilities as well as features for creating and administering online quizzes and online submissions. Web tools also support inquiry-based learning suitable for teachers and students both involving the essence of inquiry-based learning.

Inquiry-based learning describes approaches to learning that are based on the investigation of questions, scenarios or problems-often assisted by a facilitator. Inquiries will understand and study issues and questions to improve their knowledge or solutions. It includes problem-based learning and is used in small-scale investigation and project as well as research. It will be much more beneficial for students because involvement in learning results in improvement of possessing skills and attitudes that permit you to seek solutions and issues while you build your new knowledge. There are numerous web tools that support inquiry-based learning which teachers can use effectively to make all students interact in the class.

Web-based learning tools are also referred to as learning objects, interactive web-based tools that support learning by enhancing, amplifying and guiding the cognitive processes of learners. It offers two noteworthy features that can reduce the impact of potential obstacles teachers face when using technology. Firstly it is designed to focus on specific concepts, making them easy to learn and use and more attractive to busy educators who have little time to learn more complex, advanced software packages. Ease of use also makes it more palatable to teachers who are apprehensive about using technology. Secondly a wide range of web-based learning tools exist including drill and practise assessment tools or tutorials, video case studies or supports, general web-based multimediaresources and self-contained interactive tools in a specific content area. In contrast with other learning technologies burdened with implementation challenges and costs, web-based learning tools are readily accessible over the net and teachers need not worry about extra cost or not having the latest version. It is speculated that the broad selection of readily accessible web-based learning tools will make it easier for teachers to integrate WBLT's into a classroom environment. Some of the best interactive web tools for educators.

Project-based learning simulates the experiences that learners would have while performing the functions required in a job, which allows the opportunity to immediately apply what they've learned and benefit from an organization's existing knowledge base. With recent advances in technology, it is possible to facilitate the social aspects of learning by virtually connecting individuals within a distributed community of practice in the online environment.

While these are skills that teachers are trying to develop in young learners, adults have already developed and used these skills. They have sharpened these skills through work, higher education, raising children or through marriage. As lifelong learners dealing with real-life problems, a project-based approach is what develops when they come together with other adults at brick-and-mortar learning centers or in social networking communities on the web.

Situated learning activities are collaborative and complex therefore traditional methods of assessment are not sufficient. Few of the trends followed in evaluating the situated learning could be:

Focus on the process rather than the products:

Process includes the content so this can be assessed by few methods such as concept map and videotape coding.

It means that the answers by the learner should be able to accept and defend multiple perspectives.should measure the attitude, efficacy, perceptual skills and higher order thinking.

Collaboration with technology will allow to track the students activities like time spent on planning, collecting information with respect to solve a problem etc.

1. ^ Auer, Michael E.; Tsiatsos, Thrasyvoulos (2019). The Challenges of the Digital Transformation in Education: Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning (ICL2018) -. Cham: Springer. p. 178. ISBN 978-3-030-11931-7.

2. ^ Hanks, William F., "Foreword", Jean Lave and Étienne Wenger (1991). Communities of Practice: Creating Learning Environments for Educators. Cambridge University Press. p. 14. ISBN 9780521423748.

3. ^ Lees, Helen E.; Noddings, Nel (2016). The Palgrave International Handbook of Alternative Education. Springer. p. 135. ISBN 978-1-137-41291-1.

4. ^ Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger (1991) Situated Learning. Legitimate peripheral participation, Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press

5. ^ Chris Kimble and Paul Hildreth (2008). Communities of Practice: Creating Learning Environments for Educators. Information Age Publishing. ISBN 978-1593118631.

6. ^ Vincini, P. "The nature of situated learning." Innovations in Learning (2003): 1-4.

7. ^ Hung, D. (2002). Situated cognition and problem-based learning: implications for learning and instruction with technology. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 13(4), 393-415.

8. ^ Halverson, A. C. (2009). Rethinking education in the age of technology. New York: Teachers College Press.

9. ^ Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

10. ^ Herrington, Jan. "Towards a new tradition of online instruction: Using situated learning theory to design web-based units" (PDF). web based units. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-04-08.

11. ^ Young, Michael (1995). "Assessment of Situated Learning Using Computer Environments". Journal of Science Education and Technology. 4 (1): 89-96. Bibcode:1995JSEdT...4...89Y. doi:10.1007/BF02211586. JSTOR 40188500.

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Situated learning is a theory that explains an individual's acquisition of professional skills and includes research on apprenticeship into how legitimate peripheral participation leads to membership in a community of practice. Situated learning "takes as its focus the relationship between learning and the social situation in which it occurs".

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In education, scaffolding refers to a variety of instructional techniques used to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and, ultimately, greater independence in the learning process. The term itself offers the relevant descriptive metaphor: teachers provide successive levels of temporary that help students reach higher levels of comprehension and skill acquisition that they would not be able to achieve without assistance. Like physical scaffolding, the supportive strategies are incrementally removed when they are no longer needed, and the teacher gradually shifts more responsibility over the learning process to the student.

Scaffolding is widely considered to be an essential element of effective teaching, and all teachers-to a greater or lesser extent-almost certainly use various forms of instructional scaffolding in their teaching. In addition, scaffolding is often used to bridge learning gaps -i.e., the difference between what students have learned and what they are expected to know and be able to do at a certain point in their education. For example, if students are not at the reading level required to understand a text being taught in a course, the teacher might use instructional scaffolding to incrementally improve their reading ability until they can read the required text independently and without assistance. One of the main goals of scaffolding is to reduce the negative emotions and self-perceptions that students may experience when they get frustrated, intimidated, or discouraged when attempting a difficult task without the assistance, direction, or understanding they need to complete it.

Scaffolding vs. Differentiation

As a general instructional strategy, scaffolding shares many similarities with differentiation, which refers to a wide variety of teaching techniques and lesson adaptations that educators use to instruct a diverse group of students, with diverse learning needs, in the same course, classroom, or learning environment. Because scaffolding and differentiation techniques are used to achieve similar instructional goals-i.e., moving student learning and understanding from where it is to where it needs to be-the two approaches may be blended together in some classrooms to the point of being indistinguishable. That said, the two approaches are distinct in several ways. When teachers scaffold instruction, they typically break up a learning experience, concept, or skill into discrete parts, and then give students the assistance they need to learn each part. For example, teachers may give students an excerpt of a longer text to read, engage them in a discussion of the excerpt to improve their understanding of its purpose, and teach them the vocabulary they need to comprehend the text before assigning them the full reading. Alternatively, when teachers differentiate instruction, they might give some students an entirely different reading (to better match their reading level and ability), give the entire class the option to choose from among several texts (so each student can pick the one that interests them most), or give the class several options for completing a related assignment (for example, the students might be allowed to write a traditional essay, draw an illustrated essay in comic-style form, create a slideshow "essay" with text and images, or deliver an oral presentation).

The following examples will serve to illustrate a few common scaffolding strategies:

The teacher gives students a simplified version of a lesson, assignment, or reading, and then gradually increases the complexity, difficulty, or sophistication over time. To achieve the goals of a particular lesson, the teacher may break up the lesson into a series of mini-lessons that progressively move students toward stronger understanding. For example, a challenging algebra problem may be broken up into several parts that are taught successively. Between each mini-lesson, the teacher checks to see if students have understood the concept, gives them time to practice the equations, and explains how the math skills they are learning will help them solve the more challenging problem (questioning students to check for understanding and giving them time to practice are two common scaffolding strategies). In some cases, the term guided practice may be used to describe this general technique.

The teacher describes or illustrates a concept, problem, or process in multiple ways to ensure understanding. A teacher may orally describe a concept to students, use a slideshow with visual aids such as images and graphics to further explain the idea, ask several students to illustrate the concept on the blackboard, and then provide the students with a reading and writing task that asks them articulate the concept in their own words. This strategy addresses the multiple ways in which students learn-e.g., visually, orally, kinesthetically, etc.-and increases the likelihood that students will understand the concept being taught.

Students are given an exemplar or model of an assignment they will be asked to complete. The teacher describes the exemplar assignment's features and why the specific elements represent high-quality work. The model provides students with a concrete example of the learning goals they are expected to achieve or the product they are expected to produce. Similarly, a teacher may also model a process-for example, a multistep science experiment-so that students can see how it is done before they are asked to do it themselves (teachers may also ask a student to model a process for her classmates).

Students are given a vocabulary lesson before they read a difficult text. The teacher reviews the words most likely to give students trouble, using metaphors, analogies, word-image associations, and other strategies to help students understand the meaning of the most difficult words they will encounter in the text. When the students then read the assignment, they will have greater confidence in their reading ability, be more interested in the content, and be more likely to comprehend and remember what they have read.

The teacher clearly describes the purpose of a learning activity, the directions students need to follow, and the learning goals they are expected to achieve. The teacher may give students a handout with step-by-step instructions they should follow, or provide the scoring guide or that will be used to evaluate and grade their work. When students know the reason why they are being asked to complete an assignment, and what they will specifically be graded on, they are more likely to understand its importance and be motivated to achieve the learning goals of the assignment. Similarly, if students clearly understand the process they need to follow, they are less likely to experience frustration or give up because they haven't fully understood what they are expected to do.

The teacher explicitly describes how the new lesson builds on the knowledge and skills students were taught in a previous lesson. By connecting a new lesson to a lesson the students previously completed, the teacher shows students how the concepts and skills they already learned will help them with the new assignment or project (teachers may describe this general strategy as "building on prior knowledge" or "connecting to prior knowledge"). Similarly, the teacher may also make explicit connections between the lesson and the personal interests and experiences of the students as a way to increase understanding or engagement in the learning process. For example, a history teacher may reference a field trip to a museum during which students learned about a particular artifact related to the lesson at hand. For a more detailed discussion, see .

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Scaffolding is a teaching approach that moves students progressively toward stronger understanding, skill acquisition, and learning independence.

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Role-play is a technique that allows students to explore realistic situations by interacting with other people in a managed way in order to develop experience and trial different strategies in a supported environment. Depending on the intention of the activity, participants might be playing a role similar to their own (or their likely one in the future) or could play the opposite part of the conversation or interaction. Both options provide the possibility of significant learning, with the former allowing experience to be gained and the latter encouraging the student to develop an understanding of the situation from the 'opposite' point of view.

How it Works

Participants are given particular roles to play in a conversation or other interaction, such as an email exchange, typical of their discipline. They may be given specific instructions on how to act or what to say, as an aggressive client or patient in denial, for example, or required to act and react in their own way depending on the requirements of the exercise. The participants will then act out the scenario and afterwards there will be reflection and discussion about the interactions, such as alternative ways of dealing with the situation. The scenario can then be acted out again with changes based on the outcome of the reflection and discussion.

Possible Technologies to Support the Approach

Role-play is a very flexible teaching approach because it requires no special tools, technology or environments, for example student could work through a role-play exercise just as effectively in a lecture hall as in a seminar room. However, technology can provide significant advantages, and even new possibilities, for using the approach as a learning activity.

At the most simple level, technology such as voice recorders, video cameras and smartphones/tablets allow traditional face-to-face role-play exercises to be recorded and stored online for later reference, analysis and reflection, as in this example of negotiation skills from EduCon, Korea. This can allow an exercise to be revisited at a later date and re-evaluated based on subsequent learning and experience, which isn't generally possible when the exercise has not been recorded. Other tools that can be used with this traditional style of role-play are an electronic voting system or Twitter, both of which would allow a group of students to observe the role-play and evaluate the situation and conversation as it develops, such as by voting on whether a character was too aggressive or submissive during a particular interaction. This information could be retained and, coupled with a recording, provide another resource for later analysis and reflection.

However, technology can be used to create role-play exercises beyond what is possible in a face-to-face session. Asynchronous technologies, such as online forums and discussion boards, Social Networks, Twitter, etc., allow role-play to take place over longer periods of time and in a more considered way. This means that role-play can take place outside of timetabled sessions and in situations where students are unable to physical meet at the same time. In this situation students would post their part of the conversation, wait until the other participant(s) have responded, and then post their own reply, and so on. This method allows participants to engage when they are able and gives them time to consider their responses, and while it may seem quite artificial compared to a face-to-face exercise, it can reflect situations such as email discussions quite closely.

Another advantage of using technology is that it can enable external participants to take a part in the role-play. Tools such as Blackboard Collaborate, Skype and Google+ Hangouts all provide an online space where live conversations, including video, can take place. This means that a person with experience or expertise in the area being role-played can take one of the parts, producing a much more realistic experience for the student. For example, a clinical psychologist, drawing upon their own experience to make the interaction realistic, could play the part of a patient with students taking the part of the psychologist, or a chartered engineer could play the role of a project manager while students play the role of the engineers during a meeting. All of these tools can be accessed freely over the internet and only require a microphone and speakers/headphones, meaning the technical barriers are quite low. The tools typically have recording facilities that would allow the interaction to be permanently captured. These tools are also useful for role-playing among students where they are all available at the same time but can't physically meet, such as on distance learning courses or during placement periods.

Getting Started

If you are interested in trying out role-play there are a few practical questions that you should answer:

Where in the course/module would this approach work best?

Are there situations and interactions that students would benefit from being able to explore?

Would 'live' role-play be most appropriate or would it need to be staggered over a longer period of time?

Should the students take on all of the roles, will the tutor take a role, or can people with direct experience be involved, e.g. having a genuine client or patient play their own part?

How much technology should be involved? Which tools are most suited? What support would be needed?

Are the students (and other tutors) ready for this?

Having thought about these questions, you should have worked out whether role-play is an approach that makes sense in your context and have some ideas about how to introduce it. If you are still unsure, you could try a small exercise in a single session and see how the students respond.

Further Resources

Case studies from SHU:

The following links are to case studies showing how staff at SHU have used role-play ideas in their teaching:

Related 'Teaching Nuggets':

The following link provides further information on some activities and assessment outputs that can work well with role-play, especially for students who are part-time or not campus-based:

Other resources:

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Role-play: An Approach to Teaching and Learning

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Role-play is a technique that allows students to explore realistic situations by interacting with other people in a managed way in order to develop experience and trial different strategies in a supported environment.

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there are a lot of audio books....from A1 to C2

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Where is it from?

How can I use it in class?

When should I use it?

Why should I use it in the classroom?

A few useful variations

Are there any disadvantages with using TPR?

TPR stands for Total Physical Response and was created by Dr. James J Asher. It is based upon the way that children learn their mother tongue. Parents have 'language-body conversations' with their children, the parent instructs and the child physically responds to this. The parent says, "Look at mummy" or "Give me the ball" and the child does so. These conversations continue for many months before the child actually starts to speak itself. Even though it can't speak during this time, the child is taking in all of the language; the sounds and the patterns. Eventually when it has decoded enough, the child reproduces the language quite spontaneously. TPR attempts to mirror this effect in the language classroom.

How can I use it in class?

In the classroom the teacher plays the role of parent. She starts by saying a word ('jump') or a phrase ('look at the board') and demonstrating an action. The teacher then says the command and the students all do the action. After repeating a few times it is possible to extend this by asking the students to repeat the word as they do the action. When they feel confident with the word or phrase you can then ask the students to direct each other or the whole class.

It is more effective if the students are standing in a circle around the teacher and you can even encourage them to walk around as they do the action.

When should I use it?

TPR can be used to teach and practise many things.

Vocabulary connected with actions (smile, chop, headache, wriggle)

Tenses past/present/future and continuous aspects (Every morning I clean my teeth, I make my bed, I eat breakfast)

Classroom language (Open your books)

Imperatives/Instructions (Stand up, close your eyes)

Storytelling

It can be adapted for all kinds of teaching situations, you just need to use your imagination!

Why should I use it in the classroom?

It is a lot of fun, students enjoy it and it can be a real stirrer in the class. It lifts the pace and the mood.

It is very memorable. It really helps students to remember phrases or words.

It is good for kinaesthetic learners who need to be active in the class.

It can be used in large or small classes. It doesn't really matter how many students you have as long as you are prepared to take the lead, the students will follow.

It works well with mixed-ability classes. The physical actions get across the meaning effectively so that all the students are able to understand and use the target language.

It doesn't require a lot of preparation or materials. As long as you are clear what you want to practise (a rehearsal beforehand can help), it won't take a lot of time to get ready.

It is very effective with teenagers and young learners.

It involves both left- and right-brained learning.

When I use TPR, first I get the students to do the actions and then I do them and drill the students (chorally and individually) to give them an opportunity to practise making the sounds. They are then ready to give commands to each other.

A game I like to play is to organize the students into a circle around me, I say the word and the last person to do the action is out. This person then stands behind me and watches for the student who does the action last. Eventually there is only one student, she is the winner.

You can extend this by playing Simon Says. This time when you give a command, students should only do it if you say "Simon says..." at the start. I might say, "Simon says, 'slice some bread'" or "Simon says, 'chop an onion'" and the students must do the action. However if I say, "Whisk an egg" the students shouldn't do this. If anyone does the action that Simon doesn't say then they are out and have to watch for the mistakes of the other students.

Are there any disadvantages with using TPR?

Students who are not used to such things might find it embarrassing. This can be the case initially but I have found that if the teacher is prepared to perform the actions, the students feel happier about copying. Also the students are in groups and don't have to perform for the whole class. This pleasure is reserved for the teacher.

It is only really suitable for beginner levels.

Whilst it is clear that it is far more useful at lower levels because the target language lends itself to such activities I have also used it successfully with Intermediate and Advanced levels. You need to adapt the language accordingly.

For example, it helped me to teach 'ways of walking' (stumble, stagger, tiptoe) to an advanced class and cooking verbs to intermediate students (whisk, stir, grate).

You can't teach everything with it and if used a lot it would become repetitive. I completely agree with this but it can be a successful and fun way of changing the dynamics and pace of a lesson used in conjunction with other methods and techniques.

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Where is it from? How can I use it in class? When should I use it? Why should I use it in the classroom? A few useful variations Are there any disadvantages with using TPR? Where is it from?