ROLE-PLAY GAME IN ENGLISH “STUDENT SELF-GOVERNMENT LEADER ELECTION”

Матвеева Н.В.

Кандидат педагогических наук,  Московский государственный университет путей сообщения

РОЛЕВАЯ ИГРА НА АГЛИЙСКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ «ВЫБОРЫ ЛИДЕРА СТУДЕНЧЕСКОГО САМОУПРАВЛЕНИЯ»

Аннотация

В статье описан порядок проведения ролевой игры на английском языке «Выборы лидера студенческого самоуправления» в неязыковом вузе.  Игра отражает профиль подготовки бакалавров по направлению «Организация работы с молодежью». Сформулированы задачи игры, выявлены этапы ее проведения, даны образцы высказываний студентов.

Ключевые слова: английский язык, ролевая игра, студенческое самоуправление.

Matveeva N. V.

Ph.D. in Pedagogy, Moscow State University of Railway Engineering

ROLE-PLAY GAME IN ENGLISH “STUDENT SELF-GOVERNMENT LEADER ELECTION”

Abstract

The article describes a role-play game in English “Student self-government leader election” held at a non-philological higher education institution. The role-play reflects a profile of bachelors who study organisation of work with youth. Problems of the game are formulated, its stages are revealed, samples of students’ speeches are given.

Keywords: English language, role-play game, student self-governance.

Третий год в Гуманитарном институте Московского государственного университета путей сообщения ведется подготовка бакалавров по направлению «Организация работы с молодежью» (профиль «Социальные технологии и менеджмент в молодежных организациях»). В курс дисциплины «Английский язык» включены следующие темы:

• Positive Youth Development – Психологические основы работы с молодежью;
• Youth Sociology – Социология молодежи;
• State Youth Policy in the Russian Federation – Государственная молодежная политика в Российской Федерации;
• Youth and Law – Молодежь и право;
• Management in Youth Policy – Менеджмент в молодежной политике;
• Religious Self-Determination of Youth – Религиозное самоопределение молодежи;
• Work with Different Categories of Youth – Работа с различными категориями молодежи;
• Youth in Social and Political Life – Участие молодежи в социальном и политическом процессе;
• Young Family as an Object of the Youth Policy – Молодая семья как объект молодежной политики;
• Patriotic Upbringing of Youth – Патриотическое воспитание молодежи;
• Youth Movements in the Russian Federation – Молодежное движение в Российской Федерации.

В данной работе мы хотели бы поделиться опытом организации и проведения ролевой игры «Выборы лидера студенческого самоуправления»,  которая проводится в ходе изучения темы «Youth in Social and Political Life – Участие молодежи в социальном и политическом процессе» и отражает профиль направления подготовки бакалавров. Игровая цель – выявление студентов, способных возглавить деятельность Студенческого совета.

Задачи ролевой игры мы определили следующим образом:

Образовательная: развивать навыки и умения профессионально ориентированной устной речи на английском языке.

Воспитательная: популяризировать в студенческой среде программы и мероприятия избирательных компаний, направленные на повышение электоральной активности и правовой культуры студенческой молодежи, развивать демократические традиции студенчества, гражданскую культуру, реализовывать принципы самоуправления, коллективной и личной ответственности за принимаемые решения.

Развивающая: создание условий для проявления критического и аналитического мышления, лидерских качеств  и творческого потенциала студентов, фантазии и воображения, организационных способностей.

При подготовке к ролевой игре студенческая группа делится на три подгруппы, каждая из которых получает задание: выдвинуть своего кандидата в лидеры студенческого самоуправления. Кандидаты должны подготовить самопрезентацию на английском языке «Моя визитная карточка», представить свою  предвыборную программу, составить вопросы противникам для раунда перекрестных вопросов. Предполагалось, что группы поддержки каждого из кандидатов выступят с агитацией, подготовленной в творческой форме.

Техническое оснащение: экран, проектор, компьютер, презентации, выполненные студентами в Microsoft PowerPoint, бюллетени и урна для голосования.

Роли: действующий председатель Студенческого совета, заместитель Председателя, кандидаты на должность Председателя Студенческого совета, группы поддержки, делегаты конференции.

Ход мероприятия.

Ведет конференцию заместитель Председателя Студенческого совета.

I. Введение в ситуацию.

Teacher: Student self-governance is a special form of public work, aimed at students’ social activity development. Nowadays student self-governance development is considered to be one of the state youth policy directions of the Russian Federation. The Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the State Duma, the Russian Union of Youth and other public organisations promote establishing student self-governance. Participating in student self-governing bodies facilitates formation of a comprehensively developed, creative person, well-prepared for future life. It increases competitiveness of a young specialist on a labor market.

Statements on student self-governing bodies’ activity are included into the Federal state standards of higher professional education: “the higher education institution is obliged to create the sociocultural environment and conditions necessary for development and socialisation of a personality. It is obliged to promote student self-governance development and participation in public organisations, sport and creative clubs, and scientific societies”.

The supreme body of student self-governance is the University Student Council which represents and defends students’ interests, plans and organises extracurricular activities and represents University at all levels.

Today we have a self-governance meeting and I give the floor to Chairman Deputy who will lead the meeting.

II. Открытие конференции, постановка целей и задач, оглашение повестки.

Chairman Deputy: Good afternoon, dear friends! For four years our Student Council has been headed by Ivanov Ivan. Under his leadership various students’ projects were implemented. He is leaving, and today we have a student election conference. The purpose of our conference is to find students, capable to lead the Student Council activity. We must provide democratic election of the Student Council Chairman. Also our aims are to popularise electoral campaigns programs and actions, to increase electoral activity of our students, to develop democratic traditions, civil culture, to implement the principles of self-governance, collective and personal responsibility for decision-making.

We have three candidates. Candidates have received a task:  to prepare self-presentations, to present their programs, to prepare questions for the opponents. It was supposed that each candidate supporting group would present propaganda prepared in a creative form.

Our agenda contains:

1. Chairman of the Student Council’s report.

2. Election conference:

• Self-presentation and propaganda;
• Cross-round questions;
• Solving psychological tasks.

3. Voting.

Now I invite Chairman of the Student Council Ivanov Ivan to present his report.

III. Отчет председателя Студенческого совета.

Chairman of the Student Council (доклад сопровождается фотоотчетом):  Dear friends! Here at the conference I’d like to give you the picture about the projects implemented by the Student Council. First of all I’d like to speak about our participation in the volunteer movement.  All Student Council members are volunteers, and we cooperate with Moscow volunteer association, take part in the All-Russian stock “Light in a Window”. We help lonely elderly people.  With the purpose of drawing attention to a problem of lonely elderly people the initiative “Mercy” is carried out.  Every year in December our students participate in an action “A New Year gift to every child” for orphan children.

Our students annually participate in the festival "United Country, Great Russia". The festival purpose is promoting the ideas of patriotism and strengthening civil values, preservation and enhancement of moral and cultural achievements of the youth, identification of talented performers and art collectives, healthy lifestyle promotion.   

We took part in the Russian Union of Youth projects.

Then I’d like to say about “the Word of the Day project”.  Usually spelled or pronounced incorrectly words are placed on the information stand in its correct form with the explanation.  Sometimes "the word of the day" is accompanied by a summary or a drawing.

Twice a year we have “Student self-governance days”. Students act as Dean, Dean Deputy, Supervisors, Curators and Senior Curators.

All year round students patronise the veterans, participate in sport competitions, carry out scientific researches. As a whole, up to 15% of the total number of students take part in the Student Council activity. To run such a big collective successfully and to organise versatile and extensive activity of the Student Council, Chairman of the supreme body of student self-government must have leadership qualities, high level of organisation and communicative abilities, he must be respected by both students and teachers, he must have friends and adherents who can give him their support in the projects implementation. In this connection I can’t mention that we had difficulties in our work: in spite of the fact that the Student Council is rather numerous, there is no candidate pool, and as a result we experience difficulties with a new leader appointment.

Besides, there was no sufficient information support of the Student Council activity: information about actions and projects timely appeared on the site, but very few students understand goals and tasks of the Student Council.

That is all what I wanted to say. Thank you for your attention.

Chairman Deputy: Have you any questions to the reporter?

A question from the audience: There is some mess in our minds concerning the difference between the Student Union and the Student Council. As far as I understand, the Student Union helps to resolve social problems of our students, while the Student Council organises activity of students living in the hostel. Can you clarify this matter?

Chairman: The Student Union helps students who are members of the Student Union to resolve some social problems within the union fund they have. The Student Council organises extracurricular activity of both resident and non-resident students, who are the Student Union members and those who don’t belong to the Student Union. The Student Council doesn’t have any fund and all our work is carried out on a voluntary basis.

IV. Оценка деятельности Студенческого совета.

Chairman Deputy: Now we must estimate the Student Council’s work.

Student 1: I’d like to say that we were intensively involved in solving problems of high interest, learned listening skills, cooperation skills, developed language and memory skills, and enhanced critical reasoning skills.

Student 2: We practiced cooperation, mutual respect and responsibility, our activity was well-organised, and Chairman of the Student Council always gave his support in all our deeds.

Student 3: I would like to compliment Ivan for always supportive and respectful style of communication he managed to establish in our team.

Chairman Deputy: Well, I suppose that the Student Council work can be defined as effective. Who is in favour? Who is against? Thus, the Student Council work received positive assessment of the audience. Now we start election conference. The candidates are invited to speak. The first round is “Self-presentations”.

V. Выступления кандидатов на должность Председателя Студенческого совета.

Кандидаты на должность лидера студенческого самоуправления выступают со своими самопрезентациями, выполненными в программе Microsoft PowerPoint. Ниже представлены некоторые рекомендации по подготовке самопрезентаций.

Self-presentation is a verbal and nonverbal demonstration of someone personality in the system of external communications. For sure, each graduate must have skills and abilities of self-presentation. It means he has an ability to present himself in different situations effectively, to create an individual style of communication, and a unique and attractive image. We consider:

− appearance;

− expressive, persuasive speech;

− behavior manners;

− proposed qualities of the personality.

The self-presentation may include:

− data on educational activity,

− interests and hobbies,

− personal traits,

− photoreport on participation in socially significant projects,

− copies of the documents confirming educational and professional achievements (certificates and diplomas).

While delivering their programs, candidates noticed that the work of the Student Council is extensive, and many actions and projects have become traditional ones.  They expressed confidence that they will be able to organise the activity of the Student Council so that its efficiency won’t decrease.  One of candidates suggested making changes in the Museum of Fighting and Labor Glory, by getting in touch with the graduates, having enlarged the museum funds with the materials concerning labour activity of the graduates, and having developed special excursions for the Doors Open Days visitors.  It was also offered to create a virtual museum – a special section on the site, and to begin this work with the creation of a virtual Honours board, having placed lists of the graduates who have graduated cum laude there.

Each candidate’s self-presentation was followed by his support group’s propaganda performing. 

VI. Раунд перекрестных вопросов.

A cross-question round was to found out each candidate strengths and weaknesses, to clear up their attitude to various problems. We give some examples of the questions asked to the candidates.

− What directions of the Student Council activity do you consider the most important?

− What projects and actions do you plan to take part in?

− How will you solve a lack of time problem (the Student Council works after classes)?

− How much time will you be able to spend on participation in work of Student council? (There are a lot of nonresident students at University).

− What will be your first step if you become Chairman of the Student Council?

− Do you go in for sport?

− Can you rely upon your team while solving organisational questions?

− What is your attitude to harmful habits?

VII. Решение психологических задач.

During this round the candidates for a post of the Student Council Chairman had to analyse a situation, put forward alternative decisions, estimate each of them and propose the best solution. 

1. You plan to take part in a team competition. On day of competition it becomes clear that three sportsmen from your team fell ill. Describe your actions.

2. Not all of the students from the group came for duty. Describe your actions.

3. Two students go down the street and argue, whether the mark is fairly put. Describe your actions. Will you engage in a conflict?

4. The student who was responsible for delivery of the gifts to orphan children didn't fulfill the task, and gifts weren't delivered. How will you behave in this situation?

This round gives the chance to clear up the degree of tolerance, ability to prevent and stop the conflicts, readiness to take the responsibility in non-standard situations.

VIII. Голосование.

Chairman Deputy: Now it’s time for voting. A new Chairman of the Student Council will be elected during a secret ballot in which all presentees take part. Friends, here are your bulletins, put a mark near the candidate surname you like and cast your vote in the bulletin box.

IX. Подсчет голосов и объявление победителя.

X. Информация о домашнем задании – написать заметку о прошедшей конференции для сайта Университета.