The use of role plays to develop communicative competence in a first grade secondary EFL class

Abstract

The following pedagogical essay is the result of the investigation carried out in a first-grade group from "Escuela Secundaria General Dionisio Zavala Almendarez”. The topic selected for the present research considers the pedagogical approach Aprendizajes Clave, which mentions that students need to learn English using English in real communicative interactions or close to their reality (SEP, 2017, p. 170). Therefore, it was necessary to place students in a context in which they could make use of the communication skills necessary for XXI century societies. The objective of this research is to develop in students the skills necessary for communication in any context in which they may be immersed. In addition, the use of role plays was the most appropriate tool to place the students in any possible context. For developing the present research, a lesson plan was designed following the Presentation, Practice and Production (PPP) approach, in which a role-play was used to present to students the target language of the session and, consequently, they had to present a role play using everything they were able to develop throughout the sessions. In order to analyze class development and results, Gibbs’ Framework for Reflection was used. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the classroom turned into online session, therefore, there were only two classes per week. The results displayed that sociolinguistic competence was the most developed by the group and discursive competence the least developed.