Biography
Dr. Maria Martinez Lirola
Dr. Maria Martinez Lirola
University of Alicante, Spain
Title: Exploring the development of oral skills and social competences through role plays in an English language subject in higher education
Abstract: 
Contemporary English teaching demands the use of methodologies that facilitate students’ participation and protagonism in the teaching-learning process. This presentation aims to suggest a strategy for employing role plays framed in a cooperative methodology in order to encourage students’ participation and the acquisition of social competences in an advanced English as a Foreign Language subject at tertiary education. The objectives of this presentation are: 1. To promote the development of oral skills and social competences in an English subject at university level by students’ participation in role plays and 2. To know students opinions about the implementation of roles plays in the classroom. 
The study uses a mixed-methods research design (qualitative and quantitative) by observing the students' performances in role plays and by using a questionnaire at the end of the semester. The findings show that students acquire social competences, increase their interaction and improve their speaking skills by their participation in role plays. Moreover, the study revealed that students become more aware of social situations. 

Key words: role plays, social competences, cooperative learning, active methodologies, higher education.
Biography: 
María Martínez Lirola is a Senior Lecturer of the Department of English at the University of Alicante, Spain and Research Fellow at the University of South Africa (UNISA). Her main areas of research are Critical Discourse Analysis, Systemic Functional Linguistics and Applied Linguistics. She has published more than 100 papers and seven books, such as Main Processes of Thematization and Postponement in English (Peter Lang, 2009). She has been a visiting scholar in different universities such as: Manchester Metropolitan University (2019), University of Rome (2019), Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales en la República Dominicana (FLACSO-RD) (2018), Queens College, City University of New York (USA, 2017), Universidad del Norte (Barranquilla, Colombia, 2016), Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD, 2015), University of Nottingham, Malaysia campus (2015), University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada 2014), Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada, 2012), University of South Africa, UNISA (Pretoria, South Africa, 2012), University of Anahuac Mayad (Mérida, Mexico, 2008), University of Kwazulu-Natal (Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, 2006), and Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia, 2005). She has presented papers in international congresses all over the world.