The Effect of “Role-playing” on Students’ Achievement and Motivation in the Governmental Schools of Bethlehem District in Palestine

Abstract

Aims: The study aims at investigating the effect of using role-playing on students’ achievement and motivation in the English speaking skills of eighth Graders. Methods: This study followed the quasi-experimental design and was applied to two groups (experimental and control). Then the two experimental and control groups were divided into 4 sub-groups "two experimental and two controls." The experimental group was received instruction by using (Role-play) method; while the other group received it by the ordinary method. The sample consisted of 125 8th grade students in the governmental schools in Bethlehem District in the academic year 2015/16. The researchers prepared a speaking achievement test and a questionnaire. Content validity and reliability were established for all instruments. It was 0.9 for the questionnaire and 0.8 for the test. The experiment lasted two months. A pre-test and post-test were performed using the speaking skills’ achievement test, and the questionnaire was used to measure the effect of using role-playing technique. The means and standard deviation, (2-way ANCOVA) test was used in the study. Results: The findings of the study showed that there were statistically significant differences in students’ speaking skills achievement due to the interaction between teaching method and gender. Moreover, there were statistically significant differences in students’ speaking skills achievement due to the teaching method in favor of the experimental group. Also, there were statistically significant differences in students’ speaking skills achievement due to gender in favor of the female group.  In addition, there were no statistically significant differences in students’ motivation towards speaking skills due to method of instruction. But there were statistically significant differences in students’ motivation towards speaking skills due to gender in favor of the female group. Conclusion: Based on those findings, the researchers concluded that training programs should be offered to train teachers on using the role-playing technique, students should be provided with opportunities to practice using it, and more studies should be conducted on different variables and subjects.