Tài liệu Skkn improving high school students’ speaking skill through role- play

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐỒNG NAI Đơn vị : THPT Ngô Quyền ___________________ Mã số: ………………….. SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM Người thực hiện: Trần Văn Nghĩa Lĩnh vực nghiên cứu: Quản lý giáo dục Phương pháp dạy học bộ môn Phương pháp giáo dục Lĩnh vực khác: Có đính kèm: Mô hình Phần mềm Năm học: Phim ảnh 2012-2013 Hiện vật khác SƠ LƯỢC LÝ LỊCH KHOA HỌC __________________________ I. THÔNG TIN CHUNG VỀ CÁ NHÂN 1. Họ và tên: Trần Văn Nghĩa 2. Ngày tháng năm sinh : 20-11-1963 3. Nam/Nữ: Nam 4. Địa chỉ: B 28-Khu Phố 6- Tam Hiệp- Biên hòa 5. Điện thoại: 0913130131 Cơ quan: 6. Fax: Nhà riêng: E-mail: 7. Chức vụ: Tổ trưởng 8. Đơn vị công tác: THPT Ngô Quyền II. TRÌNH ĐỘ ĐÀO TẠO - Học vị (hoặc trình độ chuyên môn, nghiệp vụ) cao nhất: Thạc sĩ - Năm nhận bằng: 2001 - Chuyên ngành đào tạo: Giảng dạy tiếng Anh III. KINH NGHIỆM KHOA HỌC: - Lĩnh vực chuyên môn có kinh nghiệm: - Số năm có kinh nghiệm: 20 năm - Các sáng kiến kinh nghiệm đã có trong 5 năm gần đây: Making speaking tasks more effective and easier for high school students How to increase high school students’ oral communication . Teaching English through oral communication. Improving High School Students’ Written Competence Through Teaching Grammar in Context SỞ GD & ĐT ĐỒNG NAI CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM Đơ Đơn vị: THPT Ngô Quyền Độc lập - Tự do - Hạnh phúc - --------- ______________ Biên H òa, ngày 15 tháng 4 năm 2013 PHIẾU NHẬN XÉT, ĐÁNH GIÁ SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM Năm học: 2012-2013 Tên sáng kiến kinh nghiệm: Improving High School Students’ Speaking Skill Through Role- play Họ và tên tác giả: Trần Văn Nghĩa Đơn vị (Tổ): Tiếng Anh Lĩnh vực: Quản lý giáo dục Phương pháp dạy học bộ môn Phương pháp giáo dục Lĩnh vực khác 1. Tính mới: - Có giải pháp hoàn toàn mới - Có giải pháp cải tiến, đổi mới từ giải pháp đã có 2. Hiệu quả: - Hoàn toàn mới và đã triển khai áp dụng trong toàn ngành có hiệu quả cao - Có tính cải tiến hoặc đổi mới từ những giải pháp đã có và đã triển khai áp dụng trong toàn ngành có hiệu quả cao. - Hoàn toàn mới và đã triển khai áp dụng tại đơn vị có hiệu quả cao - Có tính cải tiến hoặc đổi mới từ những giải pháp đã có và đã triển khai áp dụng tại đơn vị có hiệu quả 3. Khả năng áp dụng: - Cung cấp được các luận cứ khoa học cho việc hoạch định đường lối, chính sách: Tốt Khá Đạt - Đưa ra các giải pháp khuyến nghị có khả năng ứng dụng thực tiễn, dễ thực hiện và dễ đi vào cuộc sống: Tốt Kh á Đạt - Đã được áp dụng trong thực tế đạt hiệu quả hoặc có khả năng áp dụng đạt hiệu quả trong phạm vi rộng Tốt Khá Đạt XÁC NHẬN CỦA TỔ CHUYÊN MÔN (Ký tên và ghi rõ họ tên) THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ (Ký tên, ghi rõ họ tên và đóng dấu) Ngo Quyen High School School Year:2012-2013 _______________ Action Research Proposal Research Title: Improving High School Students’ Speaking Skill Through Role- play Researcher : Tran Van Nghia Due Date : 15 May 2013 Improving High School Students’ Speaking Skill Through Role- play Abstract My special interest in the topic of improving students’ speaking skill through roleplay began when I listened to a lecture on the importance of role-play to the teaching and learning of speaking skill at a conference in Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, Vietnam. As an attempt to improve high school students’ speaking skill, I will carry out this mini-research with empirical methods in the expectation that I can make an innovation in English language teaching and learning at Ngo Quyen High School, where I have been working as a teacher of English for over 20 years . The purpose of this action research is to explore the effect of using role-play on the development of grade 10 and grade 11 students’ speaking skill at Quyen High School. The study also aims to identify students’ problems with the expectation that role-play will help improve their speaking skill. The research project includes a short introduction , a review of current literature related to the definition of role-play, its advantages as well as disadvantages, a description of data collection and data analysis methods in which the students will be provided with a questionnaire on their speaking styles, learning habits, preferences and their views on role-playing activities .The final parts of the research paper are sections discussing on anticipated outcomes and possible problems occurring during the research project together with a brief conclusion and some limitations of the action research proposal . Introduction Dong Nai is an industrial and commercial province in the South of Vietnam, where there are many foreigners who come to invest in the property market, to work in industrial zones and to do international trading. Most foreigners use English to communicate with their colleagues, office workers, local residents; and English is a very important foreign language for people at work and young students in the province. In this province, there are fifty high schools with the responsibility for teaching and training students to become competent English users so that they can continue their higher studies at universities or get employment in the industrial zones. Therefore, most teachers and parents are aware of the social needs of English as well as the importance of English to real-life communication. In fact, many people in the province try to study English in order to have better jobs in multi-national companies or corporations and to get promotions in their careers. Among the high schools in the province, Ngo Quyen High School is one of the prestigious ones in Bien Hoa City, the commercial heart of Dong Nai Province, where I have been working as a teacher of English for over 20 years. Each year, this school has over one thousand students who are good at various subjects, such as mathematics, chemistry, physics and biology, but their oral communication skills are not good enough. Like students in other high schools in Vietnam, the students in this school have to take English as a compulsory subject in the curriculum and study it three periods a week (1 period = 45 minutes) for 34 weeks a year. The course aim, according to the curriculum, is to help the students develop the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. In informal discussion with many grade 10 and 11 students, I know that they really want to learn English for communication, especially oral communication. However, they have very few learning strategies, especially strategies for improving speaking skills. Contrary to my expectation, what they often do in the speaking class is to copy vocabulary and language structures the teacher already writes on the board. They then translate everything into Vietnamese before completing exercises and tasks in their textbooks, or answering the teacher’s questions based on reading texts. I am also aware that they got into this habit of learning when they were at secondary schools. Actually, this way of learning hinders their learning progress. As a teacher of English as well as a researcher, I recognize that teaching English for oral communication is particularly important. However, my personal experience of its methods or techniques is still limited due to the following reasons: The number of students of each class in most schools in Vietnam as well as in my province is over 40. Besides, because of time limitations, the teacher would sometimes make use of grammar translation methods or lecturing methods for the sake of input completion. Therefore, the students have very few opportunities for communication; and they do not get familiar with natural responses to communicative situations except for question- answer activities between the teacher and student individuals. For the above reasons, the students lack confidence and creativity to state their opinions and to express themselves in English. As a researcher, I know that there are a number of things that need innovations. However, in this research the focus of my investigation is on the students’ speaking skill because speaking, in my personal opinion, is the most important of the four language skills. According to Ur (1996,p.120) , “Of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking seems intuitively the most important: people who know a language are referred to as “speakers” of that language, as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing; and many if not most foreign language learners are primarily interested in learning to speak”. She also emphasizes that classroom activities that develop learners’ ability to express themselves through speech would therefore seem an important component of a language course. As an attempt to improve grade 10 and grade 11 students’ speaking skill, I will carry out this mini-research with empirical methods .The purpose of this action research is to investigate the effect of using role-play on grade 10,.11 students’ speaking development at Ngo Quyen High School. The study also aims to identify students’ problems with the expectation that role-play will help improve their speaking skills. Finally, the study will investigate students views on role-play activities. In this action research, I would like to apply what I have acquired in order to improve teaching practices at my school and other schools in the province. In my own experience of teaching and from what I have read in some very useful books during the time I have learned in Singapore, I believe that role-play will help my students learn speaking more effectively. More importantly, there is a great need for changes to be made in the teaching of speaking in my school. This study will be of great value to the principal, vice- principals, students and teachers in Ngo Quyen High School. As a researcher, I do have a role to play in improving both standards and the quality of teaching and learning English in my school. My expectation is that the research will help teachers in my school make a change in teaching English, particularly in speaking skills. Last but not least, the findings will be passed on to teachers in other high schools in my home province. This research will make a valuable contribution to the teaching and learning of English in Dong Nai, an industrial and commercial province where there is a tendency to apply new English teaching methods in order to promote students’ spoken communication. The research focus will be formulated into the three questions as follows : 1. What is the effect of role-play on the development of Grade 10, 11 students’ speaking skill? 2. How can role play be used effectively in speaking classes ? 3. What are students’ views or opinions on role-play? Literature Review The purpose of the study, as presented above, is to investigate the effect of role-play on the development of students’ speaking skill. The first thing that will be discussed is a brief review of literature concerning the definition of role-play and simulation. The second part will look at the advantages of role-play to teaching speaking . Next is an analysis of disadvantages of role-play; and finally there will be a short discussion on effective ways of using role-play in teaching speaking. Many studies have been carried out in order to explore the advantages and disadvantages of role-play in teaching speaking; and the findings revealed that roleplay is an effective way to develop students’ communicative competence, especially the sociolinguistic and strategic competence (Canale & Swain,1980). In defining “Role-play”, Ur (1996) says that role-play is used to refer to all types of activities in which students assume themselves in a situation outside the classroom. In explaining the effective use of role-play, Littlewood ( 1992,p.91) also points out that “ It is not only in the classroom that we perform roles . We are doing so all the time in our daily life : in our jobs we perform the role of teacher , perhaps also supervisor or head of department ; at home we may perform the role of parent ,daughter or son ; in other contexts we may perform the role of acquaintance, stranger , novice or expert ; and so on” . In considering the benefits of role play, Larsen-Freeman( 1986) says that role-play is very important in the Communicative Approach because role-play provides students with an opportunity to practice communicating in different social contexts and in different social roles. In recommending the techniques of using role-play, he adds that role-play can be set up so that it is very structured (for example, the teacher tells the students who they are and what they should say ) or in less structured way ( for example, the teacher tells the students who they are, what the situation is , and what they are talking about, but the students determine what they will say). It is important that the teacher should encourage students to produce language outside the classroom as much as possible. By using role play students are given opportunities to use their target language . Littlewood (1983 ) emphasizes that provided that students are able to identify with the roles assigned to them , roleplaying therefore provides opportunities for students to climb into the kinds of linguistic behavior-patterns which they will need to produce outside the classroom and to integrate these behaviour-patterns with their own personalities. In agreement with Littlewood, Harmer (2001,p.274 ) emphasizes that ‘Many students derive great benefit from simulation and role-play. Students ‘simulate’ a real life encounter (such as a business meeting ,an encounter in an aero -plane cabin ,or an interview ) as if they were doing so in the real world ,either as themselves in that meeting or aero-plane, or taking on the role of a character different from themselves or with thoughts and feelings they do not necessarily share’. He also adds that simulation and role-play can be used to encourage general fluency, or to train students for specific situations especially where they are studying ESP. Similarly, Littlewood (1992,p.91) emphasizes that “The concept “role” is a useful one because it can link what takes place in the classroom with what takes place outside it”. Apparently, role-play can make classroom activities more natural and interesting. Brand and Donato (2001) stress that if we assign students roles or allow them to select the ones that are different from their own life roles we help them to understand others’ points of view. They also state that conversely, role-playing their own life roles may help them and other classmates to look more objectively at themselves and their situations. According to Dave Willis and Jane Willis (2007), the advantage of a role play is that it mirrors our life. They explain that if students are assigned trainee travel agents, they can see themselves dealing with customers, answering questions and helping to solve their problems. In contrast, role-play has some problems that should be considered. According to Ur (1996) some teachers’ attitudes to role-play vary due to their personalities and backgrounds. Some teachers are enthusiastic, but others are reluctant to use role-play. She suggests that we, as researchers, should help those teachers get familiar with using role-play by trying out an activity with them as an introduction to the unit. Also, we must clarify that role-play activities can contribute to oral fluency. Dave Willis and Jane Willis (2007) also point out the disadvantage of role-play that a role play imposes an unnecessarily heavy load on students. It asks them not only to solve the problem, but also to act out a role while doing this. In recommending how to solve the problems, they suggest that teacher should take students through a sequence in which they first solve a problem, then learn to play a role, and finally learn to solve problems while playing a role. They emphasize that by doing this, teachers can separate out the difficulties, allowing students first to concentrate on the problem, and then on the social context. As Larsen-Freeman pointed out in her book "Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching", "Role-play is very important in the Communicative Approach because role play gives students an opportunity to practice communicating in different social contexts and in different social roles." (Larsen-Freeman, p. 137) .In my own experience of teaching in order to help students improve their listening, speaking and communicative skills, I have designed and conducted several role play activities for my students to practice and use English in a more meaningful way as a practical language, and the results of my students' learning are quite positive. In comparing the advantages and disadvantages of role-play, I believe role-play can be used in all the stages of the speaking process from pre-speaking to post-speaking. Within the scope of my action research proposal, the research focus is on the application of effective techniques of teaching speaking with role-play. My expectation is that the findings of this action research will help me make improvements in teaching speaking in my school. The following is some important steps to conduct role-play suggested by Larsen-Freeman. For the role play activities in my classes, there are six major steps in the procedure. STEP 1: Decide on the Teaching Materials The teacher should decide which teaching materials will be used for role play activities. The teaching materials can be taken from text books or non-textbook teaching materials such as picture books, story books, readers, play-scripts, comic strips, movies, cartoons and pictures. The material is selected ahead of time by the teacher. The teacher can also create his or her own authentic teaching materials for role play activities. The teaching materials must be decided based on students' level and interests, teaching objectives and appropriateness for teaching STEP 2:Select Situations and Create Dialogs Then a situation or situations to be role played should be selected. For every role-play situation, dialogs should be provided (by the teaching materials or by the teacher) or created by the students themselves. STEP 3:Teach the Dialogs for Role Plays The teacher needs to teach the vocabulary, sentences, and dialogs necessary for the role play situations. The teacher needs to make sure the students know how to use the vocabulary, sentences and dialogs prior to doing the role play activities, otherwise, the teacher should allow students to ask how to say the words they want to say. STEP 4: Have Students Practice the Role Plays Students can practice in pairs or in small groups. After they have played their own roles a few times, have them exchange roles. That way, students can play different roles and practice all of the lines in the role play. When students are confident enough to demonstrate or perform in front of the class, the teacher can ask them to do so for their classmates. STEP 5:Have Students Modify the Situations and Dialogs Once students have finished and become familiar with an original role play situation, they can modify the situations and/or dialogs to create a variation of the original role play. STEP 6: Evaluate and Check Students' Comprehension Finally, the teacher will evaluate the effectiveness of the role play activities and check if students have successfully comprehended the meanings of the vocabulary, sentences and dialogs. There are several ways to do student evaluations. Students can be given oral and listening tests relating to the role plays. Example oral tests can include the following. Students are asked to answer some simple questions related to the role plays. Students are asked to reenact the role plays. Students are asked to translate the role plays into their native language if necessary For listening tests, beginning students can do simpler tasks such as: "listen and circle", "listen and number", "listen and match" types of questions. For more advanced students, they can be asked to write the words, lines, and/or dialogs in the role plays. They can also be asked to create and write variations of the role plays. Teachers can also evaluate students' understanding and comprehension while observing students' interactions, practices, and performances of their role plays. Methodology Research Questions Research Subjects Tools of Analysis Instruments 1. What is the effect of -Oral Pretest role-play on -Grade 10, the -Oral Post-test students 11 -Frequency count development of Grade -Observation -Age:16-17 -Percentage 11 students’ speaking English - Transcription skill? proficiency: 2. How can role-play be Intermediate- used Site : Ngo Quyen effectively in speaking classes ? High School, Dong Nai Province -Sample size: 60 3.What are students’ -Student views or opinions on questionnaire role-play? -Teacher interview The Subject The sample consists of two groups of year 16-17 students belonging to two different classes. Each group has 30 students. The group engaged in role-playing speaking lesson will form the experimental group, while the other,which carries on with normal lessons will form the control group.A speaking pre-test will be conducted in order to show that the two groups have the same level of proficiency. I will teach both groups for the second term of the school year 2013, using role-play activities with the experimental group and the control group will be taught as usual. The two groups will be orally tested at the end of the second term so that I can get the scores for each students. The test scores will be analyzed and considered as data for the findings. The four teachers and I will make comparisons between the control group and the experimental group on their learning in order to see the effect of role-play on students’ development of speaking. Data collection will be discussed with the principal and vice-principal of the school. ● Data collection My research will be conducted with three different methods for data collection. The first thing I will do is to prepare open-ended questions for the survey that I am going to carry out. A questionnaire seeking students’ attitudes to role-play, their views of their own abilities and perception and awareness of what role-play is about. Then , I will interview the four teachers in my school. The second thing I will do is that I get my students to fill the questionnaire I have made to find a better way to teach and learn speaking. The next thing I will do is that I make a lesson plan in which roleplay is made use of. The purpose of the questionnaire and the interview and classroom observation will be clearly explained to the students before the research starts ●Questionnaire As a questionnaire may play a central role in the data collection process, a welldesigned questionnaire is needed. To do this, I have to make a draft plan, then consult my colleagues for some questions on the topic. I want the questionnaire to be informative and appropriate to the subjects. Before conducting the questionnaire, I will pilot it in another group that shares the same similarities to the sample. The designed questionnaire is anonymous so that the students do not conceal their feelings when they give comments on their teacher and his or her teaching. The questionnaire which uses closed-and open-ended questions covers different kinds of students, their views on role-play. The questionnaire will be in Vietnamese because the students may not clearly understand all the items typed in the survey. Interview Interviewing is chosen as one of the three main methods of data collection. By asking 4 teachers questions about views or opinions on using role-play and the approaches of teaching speaking. It will take an hour for each interview. In order to make the interviewees comfortable, the place for the interview and the purpose of the interview will be made clear to the four interviewees .The main part of the interview includes asking teachers 12 questions and recording their answers by a good Sony recorder. Each teacher will be interviewed once at the beginning of the study. Open-ended questions are designed for the teacher interviews. -Classroom Observation I have designed 16 statements which describe the students’ learning styles, views and the teacher’s methods of teaching. The checklist is enclosed in the appendix. (please see appendix 3).The observer will observe and record concrete details of what the teacher does in the lesson, methods of teaching and role-play will be utilized in the classroom. ●Data Analysis All the data will be analyzed by the four teachers. The findings will be shared with the head of the English Department and the school principal. A workshop will soon be organized in order to widely disseminate the findings of the research. ●Questionnaire Analysis There are five items in the student survey, I will do a tally count, then change it into percentages, using the tables about the students’ learning styles and views on roleplay. The data will be carefully analyzed. ●Class Observation Data Analysis Observations will be used to gain in-depth understanding and to avoid misinterpretation. I will double read to gain the teacher’s views or beliefs about role play in teaching speaking, and the relationships among views and practices. ●Interview Data Analysis Each interview will be recorded, coded and then transcribed and analyzed critically. In looking across cases, I will look for themes and patterns which emerge from the data and code for the emerging themes. Each teacher’s data analysis includes classifying, categorizing, labeling and organizing the emerging classifications. ●Anticipated Outcomes . My expectation is that after experimental sessions, role-playing lesson will enable the experimental group to produce better developed spoken English than the control group in the post-test, in terms of the following features: fluency, language function ,organization of the spoken discourse. I hope the teaching of speaking with role-play can really increase the experimental group’s self-awareness through observing and clarifying feelings and thoughts. Besides, some low-motivated students may also get benefits from the approach of speaking with role-play. Significance of the study The study of the effect of role –play on the development of students’ speaking is important for several reasons. First, understanding relationship between the students’ speaking problems and the use of role-play helps to improve their speaking competence. Second, the researcher has opportunities to set up members of reflective teachers who can help other teachers to solve the speaking problems of students at the same levels. Finally, this is the first time I conduct a research proposal on productive skills, so the research findings will also help the administrators to have new policy in teaching and learning English in the school. The research on using role-play in teaching speaking is manageable and will support my professional development .The results of the research will provide high school teachers in Vietnam with valuable suggestions on whether role-play should be included in speaking classes. More importantly, speaking well can facilitate other skills, such as writing and listening. The research will bring about improvements in my own teaching practices and implement some changes in my school. Conclusion In Vietnamese high schools, role play is really a worthwhile learning experience for both students and teachers. Not only can students have more opportunities to "act" and "interact" with their partners who try to use the English language, but also students' English speaking, listening, and understanding will improve. Role play lightens up the atmospheres and brings dynamism in the classroom. Students learn to use the language in a more realistic, more practical way. A a result, they can become more aware of the usefulness and practicality of English. Role play is, in fact, a useful teaching technique which should be experimented and applied by most teachers more often in the classrooms where English is learnt as a foreign or second language. With the above analysis, I have described the methods to conduct the miniresearch on the effects of role-play on the development of grade 10, 11 students’ speaking at Ngo Quyen High School. The literature review makes clear of the advantages and disadvantages of role-play and some effective ways of using roleplay in language classrooms. The three surveys which consist of students’ views on role-play, learning preferences, teaching approaches are the main tools for collecting data. The qualitative analysis of the interview will help me to get reliable data from my research participants. However, my personal thinking is that there are possible problems occurring during the research project. For instance, teachers may not want to be observed, even though many of them are competent and experienced teachers. Finally, what I will do is to persuade them that the lessons are for observation not for evaluation or inspection at all. -----------------------------------------------------------------References Brand, S.T. and Donato, J. M, (2001). Storytelling in Emergent Literacy: Fostering Multiple Intelligences, Thomas Learning, USA. Brown, H Dough. (1994). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. Prentice Hall Regents. Harmer, J.(2001) The Practice of English Language Teaching, Pearson Education Ltd Keppel, G. (1991).Design and analysis: A researcher’s handbook (3 rd ed ) Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Larsen-Freeman, Diane. (1986).Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching, Oxford University Press. Littlewood , W. T. (1992). Teaching Oral Communication, Blackwell Publishers, UK Ur, P. (1996) A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and theory, Cambridge University Press. Willis, D. and J. Willis (2007)Doing Task-based Teaching, Oxford University Pres Appendix 1 Students’ Survey ( QUESTIONNAIRE ) The purpose of this questionnaire is to investigate students’ views or opinions on role-play. Your responses will provide important information that helps the school in planning better ways to teach speaking. Altogether there are 20 items in the questionnaire. Do not write your name on the questionnaire Please indicate your views /attitudes to the following areas by circling the appropriate number. A. How often would you like the following teaching methods in your class ? 1. Never 2. Occasionally 3. Sometimes 4. Usually 5. Always 1. Doing exercises 1 2 3 4 5 2. Practicing a conversation 1 2 3 4 5 3. Student’s translation 1 2 3 4 5 explain to you 1 2 3 4 5 5. Playing a role 1 2 3 4 5 6. Listening to the lecture 1 2 3 4 5 4. Writing what the teacher 7. Others (please specify)……………………………………………………… B. What would you feel about role-play? Put a tick in the box to describe your views on role-play. 1. Role-play is useless Yes No 2. Role-play is time-consuming Yes No 3. Role-play is interesting Yes No 4. Role-play helps us more co-operative Yes No 5. Role-play helps me a lot in learning speaking Yes No 6. Others (please specify)………………………………………………….. C. How would you like to study speaking English ? 1. I do not like it at all 2. I do not like it very much 3. This is O.K 4. I quite like it 5. I like it very much 1. Working only by myself 2. Working in one large group 1 1 2 2 3 4 3 4 5 5 3. Working on exercises 1 2 3 4 5 4. Working in role-play activities 1 2 3 4 5 5. Discussing with others 1 2 3 4 5 6. Others (please specify)………………………………………………….. D. What topics would you like to discuss in a speaking class ? Put a tick in the box that describes what you like. 1. Work and jobs 2. Friends