Teaching English in Korea - ESL blog

War of 1812 peace negotiation role-play

So I tried a new roleplay today with my EAP/CBI "American History and Sociocultural Values" class. Students acted as diplomats engaging in peace treaty negotiations; 2 As and 2 Bs would do the roleplay and at the end I asked them if they had negotiated a peace or if they were going to war. In my class, 4 of 5 groups succeded in negotiating a peace treaty.

Both A and B got this (all of which they were supposed to have read already because these are just excerpts from the homework):

http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/history/ch4.htm

By 1807 the British had built their navy to more than 700 warships manned by nearly 150,000 sailors and marines. The massive force controlled the sea lanes: blockading French ports, protecting British commerce and maintaining the crucial links to Britain's colonies. Yet the men of the British fleet lived under such harsh conditions that it was impossible to obtain crews by free enlistment. Many sailors deserted and found refuge on U.S. vessels. In these circumstances, British officers regarded it as their right to search American ships and take off British subjects, to the great humiliation of the Americans. Moreover, British officers frequently impressed American seamen into their service.

President Jefferson decided to rely on economic pressure to force the British to back down. In December 1807 Congress passed the Embargo Act, forbidding all foreign commerce.... In a single year American exports fell to one-fifth of their former volume. Shipping interests were almost ruined by the measure, and discontent rose in New England and New York. Agricultural interests found that they too were suffering heavily, for prices dropped drastically when the Southern and Western farmers could not export their surplus grain, cotton, meat and tobacco.
The hope that the embargo would starve Great Britain into a change of policy failed.

The US is preparing for war with Britain. The United States suffers from internal divisions. While the South and West favor war (northwestern settlers had suffered from attacks by Indians whom they believed had been incited by British agents in Canada), New York and New England oppose it because it will interfere with their commerce.

The US has fewer than 7,000 regular soldiers, distributed in widely scattered posts along the coast, near the Canadian border and in the remote interior. These soldiers need to be supported by the undisciplined militia of the states.

Then As got:

President James Madison has called on you to negotiate a peace treaty with Britain. It is up to you to avoid war. You need guarantees that Britain will not harm US shipping interests; Britain must not stop American ships for any reason and must apologize for removing sailors from American ships and offer compensation. Finally, Britain must protect American settlers from indigenous Canadians and property carried off by British soldiers during the Revolution should be restored or paid for.

while Bs got:

British Parliament has chosen you to negotiate with the Americans. In order to avoid war, you must receive a guarantee that America will trade with Britain but not with France. The American must also promise not to move north into Canada or west of the Mississippi. Also America should stop seeking compensation for cargo seized, sailors taken from American ships, and items looted during the Revolutionary War.

I have high hopes for this lesson but it didn't work today because it was too hard. I put As and Bs together for 25 minutes so they could strategize but despite my encouragement this time was mostly wasted. As a result students seemed overwhelmed when it was time to do the actual roleplay (the second 25 minutes of class was for the roleplay). I did hear some encouraging snippets. For example:

B1: If you trade with ony us, not France, we will security.
A1: You mean you will guarantee our ships safety?
B1: Sure.
B2: No, wait a minute....

This is exactly the kind of negotiation for meaning that leads to language learning. This activity has the potential to be a huge success but students (at least mine today) need to be directed so as to make use of the time alloted for planning.

Posted by James Trotta at May 17, 2004 8:22 AM