The Effectiveness of Role Play Strategy in Teaching Vocabulary

Statement of Problem 
Unfortunately, teachers in Saudi schools often use the same old strategies and activities for learning vocabulary, 
relying heavily on memorization and rote learning, which makes students feel bored. The learning process requires 
some change and variation from time to time, because too much repetition and structure make it much harder for 
students to engage and practise new language vocabulary activities. Anuthama (2010) states, "Vocabulary is difficult to 
teach because of the complexity of its linguistic, semantic and psycho-cognitive aspects. So teachers should keep 
looking for ways to substitute rote repetition with more effective techniques" (Anuthama, 2010, p.10). 
In learning vocabulary, the most popular technique among Saudi learners is by using the dictionary. Alabsi (2015) 
found most Saudi learners use iPad for translation of vocabulary, rather than other aspects of the language. Also 
Alhammad (2009) found that the most frequently used strategies in learning vocabulary among Saudi students were 
guessing from context, writing the meaning of new words, and looking up the meaning in a dictionary" (Alhammad, 
2009). However, current levels of proficiency among students suggest these methods are not sufficient. 
The researcher's experience and the results of an exploratory study suggest that some of the difficulties facing Saudi 
EFL students are vocabulary limitations so extreme as to prevent effective conversation and comprehension, 
misapplication of words, incorrect pronunciation of new words, rephrasing words because of limited vocabulary and 
frequent hesitation. 
For this reason, the present study aims to investigate the effect of role play to enhance and enrich vocabulary 
teaching in order to enable learners to use the foreign language effectively in real situations. 
Research Questions and Hypotheses 
This study seeks to answer the following main question:- 
ISSN 1799-2591
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 227-234, February 2016
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0602.02
© 2016 ACADEMY PUBLICATION

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What is the effect of using role-play strategy on enhancing vocabulary among female secondary school EFL 
students’? 
On the basis of this research question, the following null hypotheses are formulated: 
1. “There is no significant difference in the average mean score on the vocabulary achievement test between learners 
who will be taught by using a role-play strategy (experimental group) and those who will be taught without a role-play 
strategy (control group) in the pretest." 
2. “There is no significant difference in the average mean score on the vocabulary achievement test between learners 
taught by using a role-play strategy (experimental group) and those taught without a role-play strategy (control group) 
in the posttest."