Taipei Improvisational Theatre Structures

ENGLISH CONVERSATION
Improvisational Language Games

Department of English
National Chengchi University
Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China

Improvisational Language

As a teacher of intermediate to advanced students of English as a Foreign Language, I often find the main barrier to successful communication is not the students' ability or their knowledge of syntax, grammar, or vocabulary, but their facility with dealing with spontaneous language problems.

Students may know everything they need to deal with a specific communication situation but because they are not practiced with improvisation and spontaneity they may fail to communicate even though most of my students have been studying English for a minimum of six years if they're university freshmen and often much longer at later stages before they even reach my class. The problem is they may have rehearsed dialogues and committed entire tomes of vocabulary to memory but when they are faced with an unrehearsed language need, they may simply panic and freeze up.

One way to rememdy this is to work on the students' ability at improvising in English. To this effect, we can borrow from improvisational theatre to develop spontaneity and adaptability.

Improvisation is a form of theatre in which no script is used. Instead, the actors create the dialog and action themselves, as they perform. The most popular style today is spot improv, in which performers get suggestions from their audience and use them to create short, entertaining scenes.

In our English Conversation class, we adapt certain language-based improvisation activities to develop facility, fluency, and spontaneity in the English language.

We begin the program with simple straightforward improvisatonal language games and structures. We concentrate on small group and pair work with some entire class warmups and the like. Periodically, small groups will be asked to "perform" structures in front of the class as a whole.

Once the basic structures are introduced, we introduce the competitive variations wherein the students form "teams" and compete in showcase style scenes using the improvisational language structures - in a cooperative and supportive environment.

Lastly, we introduce the performance of longform improvisational language structures such as a formal "Harold" or similar forms in which teams perform several of the improvisational language games based around a central or connecting theme or idea.

Obviously, the focus of our use of the improvisational language games is to develop increased English fluency and facility rather than in performance ability, however the two are closely related.

These pages are specifically intended for my students but other students, teachers, and educational facilitators are welcome to try things out for themselves too. Sending an email to Brian David Phillips, Ph.D., C.H. at phillips@nccu.edu.tw letting me know what you think is appreciated as well. Enjoy.

What is All This?

Here you will find general information about improvisational language and related material.

NCCU Game Files

Here you will find the local archive of games and improvisational techniques. As we play games, I will add them to this site here.

Other Improv Resources

This is a series of resource files and links to other places on the web you can go for improv related materials.

Improv Sites of Note

Here are some improv groups and related sites I like.

Standup Comedy Resources

This is a series of resource files and links for Standup Comedy. The Advanced English Conversation course contains supplementary units on developing standup material in addition to improvisational material.

Email Brian David Phillips, Ph.D., C.H., at phillips@nccu.edu.tw.
Other Meiguo Langren Zai Taibei Web Pages

Here you will find other pages which the American Werewolf in Taipei maintains. Some are obviously more serious than others.