The Use of Role-Play Strategy in Enhancing EFL Learners’ Confidence in Speaking at Junior High Schools: A Classroom Action Research

Abstract

This classroom action research investigated the effectiveness of role-play strategies in enhancing junior high school EFL learners’ speaking confidence and communicative performance. Conducted with thirty-three students aged 14–16, the study employed qualitative methods, including classroom observations and semi-structured interviews, across iterative cycles of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. The findings revealed that the implementation of scaffolded role-play activities significantly increased learners’ willingness to speak, reduced speaking anxiety, and promoted more spontaneous and extended oral interactions. Students demonstrated noticeable improvements in both verbal and non-verbal aspects of communication, such as clearer voice projection, more consistent eye contact, and greater use of gestures. Interviews confirmed that performing through fictional roles helped reduce fear of negative evaluation, allowing learners to experiment with language more freely and confidently. The study also identified several challenges, including learners’ initial shyness, fear of peer judgment, tendency to switch to their first language, and uneven proficiency levels that sometimes limited participation. However, these difficulties were mitigated by supportive classroom climates, linguistic scaffolding, pair rehearsals, and task adjustments across action research cycles. The findings align with previous studies highlighting the interplay between affective factors, willingness to communicate, and speaking performance. The study contributes to current knowledge by demonstrating how role-play, when deliberately structured and refined, can effectively foster speaking confidence among young adolescent EFL learners. Practical implications emphasize integrating role-play systematically into speaking instruction, providing adequate scaffolding, and cultivating emotionally safe learning environments. The study offers a contextualized model of role-play implementation for junior high school EFL classrooms.