Introduction to Role-Playing Adventures (RPA)

A role-playing adventure (RPA) is a game-like, problem-solving set of tasks that culminates with the accomplishment of a mission or objective. The activities follow the task-based approach principles, that is, students use the target language to reach proposed goals by tapping into all language resources available to them. All RPAs integrate the four language skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing), but teachers may focus on one skill over the others, according to students’ needs.

In RPAs, students are players and their main objective is to come up with ideas to overcome several hurdles that keep getting in their way as they try to accomplish their mission. The teacher takes the role of the game-master. As the game-master, the teacher controls the development of the story and uses dice to determine whether the solutions presented by the students to overcome the obstacles will be effective or not. The dice provide an element of luck, reducing stress and competition, and enhancing students problem-solving skills. The dice also promote an atmosphere of creativity and fun.

The most important job of the teacher is to facilitate learning by observing and helping students use or even learn the language they need to reach their goals; i.e., teachers focus on process, while students focus on outcomes. Therefore, as an RPA progresses teachers will probably feel the need to facilitate post-task activities to deal with language gaps that arise from students’ problem-solving attempts. The Supplementary Activities section offers some ideas for such post-task moments.

Behind each RPA, there is a storyline that provides students with an objective and teachers with a framework through which to steer students in the direction he/she wants. For example, if the main objective is to find a way out of an island (‘Mystery Island’ RPA) and students suggest building a house and starting life over on the island, the teacher, in the role of game-master, can remind students that that option is not available (because it is not their objective). Or, if students suggest they have found a magic portal or a device that will allow them to be tele transported to some other place, the teacher can just tell them that they have found no such device. The storylines in this book are just for teacher use and should not be told to the students in advance.

One advantage of RPAs is that they leave room for improvisation, and teachers can include small problem-solving activities to revisit or introduce specific language items. For example, the content of the lesson that one of my classes was working on included hotel vocabulary. So, when I started the “George, The Ingenious Pilot” RPA, I immediately included a checking-in to a hotel task.  Also, when our textbook unit covered language related to healthcare, I used the “Derailed Train” RPA . Unexpected situations may also arise from students’ suggestions. For example, in one of the RPAs (‘Haunted Ship’ RPA), students found themselves in the middle of an ocean, in a lifeboat, trying to survive. I asked them what they could see around the lifeboat, and one student said that they could see an airplane. I decided to roll the dice (see “How to Use the Dice” section below) to see if there was an airplane and, although the odds were really poor (there would be an airplane only if they got a 6!), there it was, indeed.

Also, teachers may use the situations in the RPAs to discuss students’ real-life experiences or to expand their knowledge about certain intercultural issues/situations. For example, in the ‘Save the Boy’ RPA, my students wanted to use their credit card to pay for their train ticket. I took advantage of this opportunity to discuss how they can use money when traveling abroad: would they use traveler’s checks, international cards, cash? In that specific case, most students had traveled abroad and shared their experiences.  In the “Mystery Island” RPA, students are asked to explore a region of the island and report their findings. They also receive a card saying that someone in their group has had an accident. They are supposed to decide who had the accident and describe what happened. One of the groups said a snake had bitten one of the members. I immediately asked if it was a poisonous snake, and they said it wasn’t. I asked them how they could tell whether a snake was poisonous or not, and no one knew. So, I told the group that they had until the next class to get the information and that if nobody could describe a poisonous snake, their friend would be in great danger of dying. I also found a video on the topic and presented it to the group after they told me the findings of their research.

The ways the stories are developed in each RPA will obviously be different because the solutions presented by the students for each challenge will vary although the storyline remains the same. You will find an example of how a story was developed by a student (one-to-one online class)  in the RPA George, The Ingenious Pilot. A summary of what the student proposed for each task after rolling the dice and being accepted is included after each one of the George, The Ingenious Pilot RPA tasks.

Below are some questions my teachers asked when we decided to use RPAs as a regular activity in our classrooms.

What’s the role of the teacher?

As the game-master, the teacher controls the development of the story and decides whether the solutions presented will be effective or not. Teachers may choose to roll the dice to see whether students’ ideas will be successful, or they may simply accept or reject the proposals. Teachers can also plan the activities, bring props whenever necessary, and decide how long and how often to “play” the RPA. Some teachers prefer to use it once a week, but I usually reserve 10-20 minutes at the end of each class for the adventures. I have found out that students (especially teenagers) are more prone to do the class work faster and more efficiently to have more time for the RPA.

It is important for teachers to show enthusiasm throughout the adventure, and sometimes students need a little prompt from the teachers to find a solution for a problem. Teachers can whisper a suggestion to one of the students or provide a clue. For example, in the “10 Square Miles into the Future” RPA, students were in a bunker and, after surviving there for some time, I told them it was time to leave the bunker. They tried to open the trapdoor but nothing worked. In the storyline, the trapdoor had been covered with a thick layer of ice and the only solution would be to remove the hinges. No one came up with this idea, so I told them that if they couldn’t open the trapdoor by pushing it, maybe they could find a way to pull it in.

An RPA provides plenty of opportunities for students and teachers to negotiate meaning. As students develop their ideas, teachers may take notes of problems that come up during the task and include some reviews or awareness-raising exercises around specific issues, including pronunciation, vocabulary, collocations, structure, register, etc.

How do we use the dice?

Dice (one or two will do the trick) are the main elements of fun and because of them students come up with funny, unusual and sometimes far-fetched solutions. Dice are used to determine whether students’ solutions are successful or not, or to decide on the outcome of a certain situation. If a teacher is using a six-faced die, the odds of getting a specific number is 1 in 6. If the teacher wants to improve the odds, let’s say to 50%, s/he may increase the possibility of success by allowing 3 numbers. For example: a 4, 5 or 6 will mean success. The result may also be used to gauge the level of success. Imagine the following situation: students are asked to come up with a plan to climb a very tall coconut tree. The teacher gives the group very good odds (“If you get a 3, 4, 5 or 6, you are successful.”). The student rolls the die and gets a 3. The teacher could say something like: “You did it! But it was hard, wasn’t it? While you were climbing up, there was a moment when you almost fell! How did you feel? Were you afraid?” Let’s now suppose the student got a 6. The teacher’s reaction could be: “Wow! I never thought you could climb a coconut tree so fast! That was awesome! Have you had any previous experience climbing trees? What about rock-climbing?”

Here is another example. In the RPA “Haunted Ship”, students are in a lifeboat and have run out of food. They tell you that they have decided to go fishing. What are they going to use if they don’t have a fishing rod? They need to devise something. The teacher may decide to use the dice to see if they are successful. S/he starts by giving them very poor odds (“Only a 6 will do!”). If they aren’t successful, they have to come up with another idea. The teacher may roll the dice again to see how many fish they have caught, and then again, to see how big they are. The possibilities are endless.

Whenever a student suggests a solution, let that student roll the dice. The teacher may also multiply the results obtained by any number. For example: a student decides to sell something to make money. The teacher may ask that student to roll the die and say that whatever result s/he gets will be multiplied by 5 (or any other number). Students usually have lots of fun with the dice.

When students present a plan of action, the teacher may use the dice to check whether that plan can be successful or not. Again, the teacher may start by giving them very poor odds and then improve the odds as students “test” the plans.

What about corrections? When? How?

The focus of RPAs is on communication of ideas. Obviously, students will make several mistakes. We suggest that teachers take notes of the most common ones and use awareness-raising exercises to draw students’ attention to specific issues. Also, during an RPA, there will be several opportunities to negotiate meaning. A student may ask how to say something in English or the teacher may need to recast their sentences. In our classes, Tic-Tac-Toe activities (see Supplementary Activities) are always a hit.

How long and how often?

An RPA is composed of several tasks, and each adventure may take up to a semester, depending on how often it is “played”, and whether the teacher incorporates revision games, and post-tasks activities.  Before beginning a new task of the RPA, review what happened the day(s) before. Students will have a chance to review vocabulary and any student who was absent will be able to catch up with the adventure. This provides teachers and students with the opportunity to revisit specific items such as vocabulary, register, pronunciation, or structure.

What about students’ level?

In our experience, RPAs work best with B1 and up learners. However, we have used them successfully with A2 students, but they will need more support from teachers and more preparation time.

For A2 groups, we suggest that a poster be affixed up to a wall, or a whiteboard be used only for the RPA, where the teacher can write up vocabulary, expressions that students ask for during preparation time, not only for role-plays but also for other tasks. Use the poster or the board to have students retell what happened.

Here are some ways the teacher can facilitate the process.

1 – Communicative Language Learning (CLL) tool

When students contribute their ideas, very often they don’t know how to say it in the target language, or their sentences are fragmented, incomplete, or incorrect. Accept the sentences as they come and simply recast them. The teacher may even accept contribution in a student’s native language and translate it to the target language. Also, these requests for help that come from students may be added to the poster/whiteboard and worked on later taking into consideration that this is language students needed to use, rather than language imposed by the curriculum.

2 – Use Scenarios (see Supplementary Activities)

Scenarios allow learners to prepare in advance for a role-play. In addition, the way a scenario is built provides learners with support both from the teacher (during preparation time) and from their peers.

Below is a scenario example from the RPA “Saving the Boy”.

Task: Students have to visit a school bus driver to get information about the boy.

1. Place students in groups. In this example, I had four groups.

2. Give each group a role to prepare. Groups A and B received card 1 and groups C and D received card 2 below:

Card 1: You are going to talk to the school bus driver. In your group, think about what you are going to say and questions you might need to ask. Write them down.

Card 2: You drive the school bus for Nipp Elementary School. Yes, you recognize the boy. His name is Wyatt Sommers and he went to Nipp Elementary School last year. You haven’t seen him since last year. Maybe he changed schools or moved somewhere else. Suggest going to the school and getting information there. Give them the school’s address and directions on how to get there. In your group, think about what you are going to say and questions you might need to ask. Write them down.

3. Give students time to prepare their roles. Call one student from team A and one from team C to role-play the situation. Tell them that they can pause the role-play any time to ask for help from their teammates. When they finish, discuss any problems you noticed with the whole class (these may refer to appropriateness, cultural issues, grammar, pronunciation, etc.).

4. Repeat the role-play. This time call a student from group B and another from D to try it out. If you had just two groups, call a different student from each group to role-play the situation again.

I call this type of role-play a ‘scenario’. It gives room to unexpected lines because one group doesn’t know what the other group will say. It comes closer to a real-life situation. By giving students time to prepare and asking them to write down what they may say during the role-play, you are providing students with the opportunity to elicit help from the teacher. It is important for the teacher also to be waking around the groups offering help. In addition, the group member who is performing the role-play has the support of the teammates.

Why a Second Identity?

I was first introduced to second identities in the classroom when I studied Lozanov’s Suggestopedia Method. It made sense to me, especially because I have mostly worked in a small town in the interior of Bahia, Brazil, where my students all know each other and are often classmates or best friends in their formal schools. Whenever I asked them questions such as “How was you weekend?”, they usually looked bored (“The same, teacher. Nothing interesting”), didn’t have much to say, or their classmates already knew what they had done, and therefore, showed no interest. With the implementation of second identities, classes became much more fun, and students could use their imagination and creativity.

Another advantage to having the second identities is that shy students seem more comfortable in this other self: the mistakes, the opinions – as far-fetched as they could seem to be – were the mistakes and opinions of the other “self” – and they felt somewhat more protected.

I use the second identities with all my groups. We create the second identities together (I have one myself) and for the rest of the semester or year, as soon as students come in, they become that other person they have created.

Second identities also came in handy with the RPA adventures. Students were thrilled when they incorporated skills they never dreamed of having like “scuba-diving” or “mountain climbing”, or “jet piloting”.

I have only two rules they will need to observe when they create their second IDs. They have to be successful characters, and they cannot have any illegal profession.

Below are the instructions on how to create the second ID with a group of real beginners. If your group is more proficient, you can skip many of the steps.

Instructions:

Tell your class that each one of the students will create a second identity for themselves and that this identity will be used throughout the semester/year.  Give each student a blank card. Ask the questions below, one at a time. As students fill in their cards, use the board and create your own second ID as an example. Remember to provide options (or write options on cardboard paper as a menu). Instruct students to write only one or two words on the cards and not whole sentences. For example:

Teacher: Where are you from? You can be from a different continent. Can someone tell me the names of different continents? (write the continents on the board). Can you give me examples of countries in each of these continents? (write the names of the countries on the board).  I am from Laos, Asia. (write Laos on the board where you are creating your second ID). What about you? Where are you from?

• Other basic questions (remember to provide options for each of them like the example above): Where do you live? How old are you? What do you do? Are you single or married? If you are single, have you got a sweetheart? If you are married, what’s your spouse’s name? Have you got any children? What do you enjoy doing in your free time (inform three activities). What languages can you speak? What are you like (write three adjectives that describe your appearance and three other adjectives that describe your personality). The final question is: What is your name?
• Have students introduce themselves to their classmates. Remember to take notes, show interest, and ask questions.
• Collect their cards and prepare a badge for each student to wear during the first classes until everyone knows their “new” names.

My own second ID is the same for every group:

My name is Consuelo Rivera. I am black and beautiful. I am 70 years old. I live in London.  I am a widow. I have two grown-up children: Pablo is 40, and he is a human rights lawyer at the UN. My daughter, Maria, is an activist, and she works for Greenpeace. I am an underwater photographer. I work for National Geographic. I’m very active and I travel all over the world. I love my job. I think I am intelligent and creative. In my free time, I like watching old movies and dancing. I can dance the salsa very well.

How can I include writing?

Several writing activities may be incorporated into an RPA. Preparing for the role-play described above is an example. Here are some other suggestions:

1. My Own Dictionary. Each student needs to have a separate notebook. They write entries of the new vocabulary (word or phrases) including the following: part of speech (verb, adjective, etc.), definition, sample sentence(s) and, if possible, a picture of the word or phrase.
2. Journal. Students keep a journal of the adventure. In our school, before starting a new task of the adventure, teachers and students review what happened and the teacher writes the new vocabulary on the board. Students then write down a summary of what happened the day before.  Below is an example of the journal (all entries) written by a B2 student, before correction.

How can I adapt the RPAs to larger or smaller groups?

At our school, the number of students in a class ranges from 3 to 18. I have also used the RPAs with only one student (private classes). If you have a large class, several groups may be working on one single problem or each group may have a different task. For example, when I used the “Amazon Jungle RPA” with a class of 3 students, I had all of them working together as a single group to find solutions. With a larger class, I divided the class into groups and each group worked on a different task.

If there is only one student, the teacher will need to role-play the other characters in the story. For example, if s/he is checking into a hotel, the teacher may take the role of the receptionist.

Do I have to use the Guardian’s Room and the Portal?

I started using a portal when I had a group of fast-learning teenagers, who were going to be my students for a whole year. In order to have them progress from one adventure to the other, I thought of the portal. That also allowed me to award experience points as acquired skills during the adventures. For example, if they had learned how to light a fire with flint stones then the odds of making another fire next time were better.

If you don’t want to use the portal, just go directly into the adventure.

What if a group of students finishes much before the other groups?

If a group finishes working on a task much before the others, here are some suggestions to keep them busy while they wait: 

• Ask group members to work on preparing one of them to represent the group. Anticipate questions people can ask about their plans/decisions/ideas.
• Ask the group to prepare five questions to ask the other groups when they present their plan/decisions/ideas.
• Ask the group to select five words/expressions learnt in this or the previous class and prepare an activity to review the words with the whole class playing the role of the teacher.
• Ask the group to prepare a poster with the vocabulary from the tasks developed on the previous day and post it on the wall.

What about cultural issues and sensibilities?

In a diverse class, teachers may need to be sensitive towards cultural issues and students’ prior experiences (sometimes traumatic). That is why we included a note of caution before each RPA that involves accidents or conflicts. On the other hand, the RPAs with sensitive topics may also allow for the discussion of different cultural aspects and permit students to exchange information related to their linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

Do not assume that a student will feel uncomfortable participating in an RPA that includes events that might remind them of difficult times in their past. Before discarding an RPA altogether, talk to the class and let them decide. For example, I had a class of three middle aged students – all women. I wanted to use the RPA where a ship sinks. When I told the class we were going on a ship cruise, one of the students told me she was terribly afraid of water. She couldn’t even face a sink full of water. After class, I talked to her and said I was going to change the RPA because of her phobia. She then asked me to keep the adventure because she would like to try it out and face her own fears in a safe environment. We did! And it worked out well. She participated and engaged herself in all the tasks.