Charades in the Language Classroom

Your language teaching mission, should you choose to accept it, is to use charades as a method for introducing or reviewing grammar or vocabulary.

Image source: https://calendar.syracuse.edu/events/2020-nov-04/intramural-sports-charades/

I have memories of being a kid and peeking through the staircase and watching my parents and their friends play charades in the living room. I also remember thinking “I could’ve acted that movie title out better than Uncle Fred did!” Then, when I became a language teacher, charades became a class favorite improv game for reviewing or introducing grammar or vocabulary.

 What started at a parlor game in 16th century France has evolved into a fun, simple, but incredibly effective game to play in the language classroom. The basics of charades are:

1. At least two teams competing against each other

2. A person mimes (silently acts out) a prompt

3. Their teammates must shout out the correct answer

4. Within a set timed limit

5. And fun is had!

 In my opinion, charades is best played with lists of vocabulary* or verbs. For example, in French students need to memorize the irregular past participles of verbs**, which can be quite boring. However, by doing past participle charades, students are incentivized to not only learn the correct past participle, but to make sure they know the meaning of its verb, since they’ll need to act it out or recognize it. (See below for adaptations of difficulty when using verbs).

 Preparation before class:

• Find a place for this in your lesson plan. Maybe this is to review before an assessment? Or you are using the Drama Grammar method, and this is perfect for the ‘context exploration’ part of the lesson (in which case you’ll want to create some support materials to help students). Budget between 10-15 minutes, depending on how familiar students are with the game already.

• Create a list of prompts (ex. specific verbs, irregular past participles, the unit vocab words in the target language, etc.) and print it out. Cut the prompts into individual small pieces of paper, then put in a container (i.e. envelope or Ziploc bag). Since I’ll often have five groups of six in a 30-person class, I tend to use five different colors of paper. That way if I find a random piece of paper when class is over, I know which bag to put it back into!

Before the activity:

• Divide students into groups. As mentioned above, I like smaller groups of three competing with other groups of three. This way there’s two people guessing, which is small enough that students can’t just sit there. They also are guaranteed at least a couple of rounds of acting out the prompts.

• Set the ground rules. Are participants allowed to put prompts back in the bag if it’s taking too long for their teammates to answer or they don’t know how to act it out? Are they allowed to have access to their notes when guessing and/or acting? If they violate the rules of charades (speak aloud or spell out a word) do they get any second chances or are they disqualified? If someone shouts out the correct answer right after the timer sounds, does it still count? I usually let each group decide for themselves.

During the activity:

• The team with the most points wins the game. Points are gained when students on the person acting out the prompt’s team shout out the correct answer. There is a time limit (I usually do a minute, but that can be negotiated ahead of time) and the goal is to get through as many prompts as possible (gain as many points) during that time. The winner is declared when all prompts have been exhausted. As most students have access to phones with timers, I’ll have each group individually time themselves. This wikihow video explains how to play quite well.

• While students are playing, I usually circulate to make sure everyone is on-task. If I see a student struggling, I might look at the paper and suggest a gesture or action for them to try. Because of the competitive nature of the game, there’s often a lot of engagement… and sometimes, too much noise!

After the activity:

• I’ll sometimes follow up with a reinforcement activity, like a crossword** or a quickwrite, to solidify the learning in students’ minds. You can also have students do a quick reflection about how they did, and which words were the hardest to remember. Perhaps they could think of tricks of how to remember that word for next time? Students could also be asked to nominate an MVP of the group, whoever acted the best or guessed the most. Don’t forget to have students collect the prompts and put them all back into their container before you move on to another activity! There’s nothing worse that scrambling to deal with tiny scraps of paper between classes.  

Adaptations:

• Do a round-robin style tournament where teams compete for the title of ultimate charades champion.

• Do a whole-class version where either half the class guesses, or it’s a free for all (depending on the class, this could get raucous!)

• Transition to a game of Pictionary after warming up with charades, or vice-versa.

• Add in obstacles. For example, “for the next three words, you can only use your hands to act” or “you must stand on one foot for the next two words”. You could brainstorm a list of possible obstacles with the class, and pull one out of a hat every round. Or, you could throw them into the bag with the prompts, so when students pull out a suggestion, every once in a while, there’s a random obstacle added!

• If playing with verbs in a target language with conjugations, you can start easy (have students guess the infinite) and then make it progressively more difficult. I do this by having a die that students roll. In French there are six conjugations for each verb, which makes it very easy! So, for example, if a student rolled a three at the beginning of their turn, all the guesses for that minute must be properly conjugated in the third-person singular form. If the conjugations are wrong (and you bet the opposite team will be monitoring!) then they can’t get the point until it’s conjugated correctly. You can even have multiple dice for more advanced classes: add in a die for different tenses!

• If you need a fun game to play to fill time or as a reward, play charades like my parents did in their living room: have students write down famous movies/films/shows and guess the title in the target language

*In my interview with Florencia Henshaw and Maris Hawkins they make the point that giving themed vocabulary lists is not evidence-based best practice. However, that doesn’t mean that you might not generate more meaningful vocabulary lists in other ways, such as through reading a class novel, music video presentations, or words that come up through a story if you do TPRS. You might also be in a situation where you are obligated to test students on certain vocabulary, and this is a way to make that rote memorization more engaging.

**French-specific resources (in PDF form):

• List of French Irregular Past Participles (info sheet for students)

• Irregular Past Participle Charades (to cut into prompts)

• French Irregular Past Participle Crossword (to reinforce learning)

• French Irregular Past Participle Crossword Key

Have you played charades with your classes? What kind of prompts do you use? Any tips or adaptations to share? Post below in the comments!

Using improv in the language classroom: Prompts for free scenes

Your language-teaching mission, should you choose to accept it, is to give a wide variety of prompts to students to inspire their imaginations when creating free scenes.

For a list of fun prompts for free scenes, without the preamble about why and how I use free scenes, you can scroll down!

Improv is generally divided into two types: short form and long form. Short form games and scenes are exactly what they sound like… short (usually 5-10 minutes max, although there are always exceptions). Long form is long; 30 minutes to two hours long, and if anyone has ever done long form with their language classes, please contact me, I want to interview you very, very badly.

Source: Freepik

Short form can be further divided (according to me) into two categories: structured games and free scenes. Structured games have gimmicks, such as asking questions (see: “Boogers!”) or acting out a verb (see: “What are you doing?”). Structured games tend to be shorter than free scenes, focusing on one aspect of language within that gimmick. Sometimes there is story telling within the framework (see: the game ‘ding!’ that I discuss in “Adapting scripted role plays with improv”) but the gimmick is supreme. Any structured game that is featured as a “warm-up” in a catalogue of improv games is generally not for an audience: they are for students to play around with in small groups or as a whole class. These structures also allow teachers to maintain control over the content of the scenes, as the gimmick is often very limiting, either in what students can or cannot say, or where the story can go.

Free scenes are free of any gimmick. Although they have structure (beginning/middle/end, characters, setting, etc. and whatever prompt you give) they are essentially a small play that is meant to be presented as an encapsulated story. This does not mean they don’t emphasize a particular grammar point, but there is a lot more happening in these scenes than a grammar structure. Free scenes are my favorite types of improv to do because it truly turns the content and creativity over to students! While this may seem intimidating, this is where students truly begin to practice real-world conversation skills.

The way that I do free scenes is not ‘pure’ improv, in the way that the gimmick games are, in that I give students time to prepare ahead of time. I do this for a variety of reasons:

• The goal here is language use, not being good at improvised theater. To apply a new concept, it is helpful for students to talk it out with their peers, correct mistakes, and apply what they know to these new grammatical structures

• I’m okay with students using their L1 to plan the scene – in fact, I wrote a blog post for School Rubric about why that’s actually a great thing!  

• Increase student confidence. While things definitely change on the fly, students have at least agreed ahead of time on basic story structure, which makes people less nervous. This can also be seen as ‘increase teacher confidence’ as inappropriate suggestions can be vetoed by the group, and I can keep an eye on what students are doing.

• It is really important that every student is included in the scene in whatever way they are capable. In a ‘true’ improv situation, students can be lost in the weeds if they don’t force themselves into the scene. This way, as students are planning, they can make sure everyone has an important role to play.

• Perfect time for me to circulate and answer questions. The best part of doing improv is that grammar becomes needs-based: students want to say something so they come to me to explain how they can say it. Then, they actually remember it because it was something they chose to learn.

I usually ask that students not use their phones nor take a pen and paper with them to prepare (this is still about non-scripted conversation, after all!). The phone rule is adaptable (some groups I need to keep their phones in a locked box, some groups are responsible and use their phones for looking up words or adding sound effects) but the paper/pen rule is not. I will often discourage dictionary use, however, since if they don’t know the word, chances are that their peers don’t either, and the whole point is to be understood. I do however, encourage them using their unit materials, such as notes, especially when we are using new grammatical structures.  As for group size, three to five seems to be ideal in my experience. I will usually give students 10-15 minutes of planning to start, and if I circulate, see everyone is on task but needs more time, will extend as needed.

PROMPTS!

Now, on to the fun part… what are some fun and creative ways to inspire students for new scenes? In a traditional improv show, the host will often ask questions of the audience, but in the classroom, I find it better to be prepared ahead of time, giving thought to what I want them to be learning/practicing in their scenes.

Vocabulary Prompts

• Unit vocabulary is cut up on slips of paper in a hat. Each group selects three vocabulary words they need to incorporate into their scene. At the beginning of the scene, before students present, I will sometimes have students share their three inspiration words. Sometimes, especially towards the end of a unit when all the vocabulary is familiar, it can be fun to have the class guess what the inspiration words were!  Vocabulary doesn’t need to be nouns, it can include other parts of speech as well as idioms.

Grammar Prompts

• These are usually given in addition to other prompts (i.e., finish the rest of the movie, but you need to use five adjectives while you do it) in order to focus on specific grammar targets (and a way for the teacher to give targeted feedback).

Character/Setting Prompts

• A list of characters are in a hat. Students pick a set amount and must incorporate them in their scene. I find that this pairs where with all picking a setting. For example, in a unit on travel, students can pick a setting that has been discussed (i.e., hotel, restaurant, train station) and then have two mismatched characters try and navigate these familiar places. In a group of four, for example, you might have Batman and Darth Vader fighting over the last unbooked hotel room, and the frazzled front desk employee and their manager trying to find a solution. Students are pretty good at generating lists of characters (or you can take them from a novel or movie you are also working on!) You can also find generic lists, such as this group of 30 pictures of fictional characters you could cut up and put in a hat.

Object Prompts

• Find three objects and give to students as a prompt. Remember: a scarf doesn’t need to be a scarf, it can be a snake or a dog’s tail or a third arm!

Picture Prompts

What is this invention for? A child shock collar? An alien compliance device? The latest in necklace fashion? Let students guess! Source: www.businessinsider.com/50-awesome-inventions-2010-9

• Students are given photographs as inspiration for their scenes. You can ask tell them that at one point in the scene they must recreate what is in the photo (i.e., if they have a picture of the Last Supper, at one point everyone must be at a table on one side) or their scene must explain what happened just before or after the photo. The photo could be pure inspiration, or be the whole point of the scene. My favorite use of this is that I give each group a picture of an old invention (see this amazing list here of which I take six of the best). Students can’t look up what the old invention actually was for, they have to come up with a scene that does its best to explain what they think it is. At the end of the scenes I reveal what the real purpose was, and often, their guesses are better than the real thing!

Preview Prompts

• I’ve spoken before about using picture stories to have students practice writing. In this scenario, you give students a few screenshots of the video they are going to watch, and they must make their own story to fit. Then, you watch the ‘real’ video and compare.

Movie Prompts

• Like the above, but instead, you only show the first thirty seconds to two minutes of a short film. Students must present how they would finish the story. Then, we watch how the ‘real’ story unfolds, and compare the class’s decisions to the director’s, and again, often the students make better choices!

Anything you can think of!

• In have a drawing/speaking activity that involves six shapes and recently realized… it can be an improv prompt too! There’s tons of fun activities involving memes (see: upcoming post on using memes in the language classroom); why not cut up a bunch of memes and put them in a hat? Take a list of headlines from a recent newspaper or sentences from the school announcements… Anything can be an inspiration!

 NOTE: Most of these would make great Quickwrite prompts as well! In the inverse, why not use a quickwrite as an inspiration for an improv scene!

What are prompts that you use for your students? Feel free to share in the comments!

Adapting scripted role-plays with improv

Your language-teaching mission, should you choose to accept it, is to combine scripted scenes with improv to improve students’ conversational abilities.

Image: https://www.talkabroad.com/

Scripted role-plays, scenes and dialogues are all very popular resources in the language teaching classroom, especially in textbooks. However, as the blog “ELT Rants…” observes, dialogues are “Often inane. Typically stilted. Generally boring. Occasionally confusing. Rarely inspiring.”

To me, improv has always made the most sense because that’s what all conversation is… improvised. However, there are good arguments to be made for scripted conversation tools, which the blog also notes: they provide context for language use, provide language input for important grammar and vocabulary, boost student confidence, and are comfortably familiar for students.  Moreover, many conversations that we are preparing students for do tend to follow prescribed social norms that are culturally unique, and are worth exploring with students (though beware reinforcing the problematic norms of the dominant culture!). Therefore, rather than throw the baby out with the bathwater (what a charming English idiom that says a lot about our past hygiene habits), I think there’s value in combining scripted scenes with improv to improve students’ conversational abilities.

This is a great place to start if you’re unsure about improv, and want to start gradually introducing concepts into your classroom before letting students take full control of their scenes. Maybe you’ve spent hundreds of hours developing scripts with perfect vocabulary targets, and don’t want to put them aside, yet know there’s value in improv. Or, like me, you accept that there are some benefits to using scripted dialogues, but don’t want to get rid of the improv part that makes language class fun for you!

Below I discuss two ways to adapt dialogues using improv principles. The first way keeps the scripts intact, whereas the second has scripts provide a comfortable jumping-off point for improvised additions.

A. Keep the scripts the same, add improv elements:

• Scenario is unchanged, but characters are assigned: Students pull characters from a hat and complete the scene as those characters. They can be well-known figures (what if Kim Kardashian was buying coffee from King Charles III?), brief descriptions of archetypes (a hurried parent with five kids or a CEO of a tech company, etc.), or even just descriptions of moods (happy, sad, angry, etc.). This is a great way to introduce characterization and to discuss communicating through mannerisms and voice. You can even turn it into a guessing game, where students have to guess the celebrity or the mood!

• Scenario is unchanged, but add new locations via a green screen*: This one is really fun, and with the advent of new technology, super easy to do. Basically, students perform their dialogue in front of a green screen (where this used to necessitate an actual blank wall painted green or a green bedsheet, with the most recent technology, you can film in front of practically anything). This adds some novelty, but there are many ways to play with this to discuss the role of context and non-verbal communication. For example:

  • Standard locations: Everyone in the class is given the same dialogue but different groups are assigned a different green-screen background and must tailor the dialogue to suit the location. After watching them all, discuss the ways that location (i.e., context) changes how communication is perceived.

  • Non-standard locations: Crazy green screens locations are given (Outer space! Under the sea! Buckingham Palace!) and students must make it work. This can also be used as a starting off point, but students can change the dialogue to suit the context (i.e., instead of “welcome to my home” they can say “welcome to my royal palace” or “welcome to my space pod”), fitting into the second category below.

  • Guess the location: Students record the scene with a certain location/context in mind, but don’t do anything to overtly call it out. Another group must watch the scene and choose what they think is the best green screen background, add it in, and explain why. After the class watches, the original group shares their thinking, as does the group that chose the background, and the class can discuss their thoughts.

  *the above can all be done without green screen technology, either through the use of imagination or through simply projecting an image on a white board/smart board and having students perform live in front of it

• Gibberish: I’ve discussed this game before in my post about great improv games for novice learners. In this case, you would start with the completed script, but only the performers will look at this particular script. Their job is to perform the scene in gibberish (i.e., made up nonsense sounds) and still get the entire encounter across. This is a great way to emphasize the importance of body language, tone, and context. You can turn this into a guessing game where the audience needs to guess where or what the scene is about based on the gibberish they’ve seen.

B. Keep the scenes as bases, but put the focus on improv:

• Oh no! A problem! One of my pet peeves about scripted dialogues is that they leave students in a panic if any of the expected pattern of conversation is changed. Unfortunately, life isn’t as predictable as we’d like it be most of the time, and I think it’s important to teach our students how to be adaptable. For example, a common dialogue for beginners will have students practicing ordering something at a café or restaurant:

  Person A: I would like to buy a cup of coffee

  Person B: Okay. What size of coffee would you like?

  Person A: I would like a small cup of coffee.

  Person B: That will be four dollars.

  Person A: Here is four dollars.

  Person B: Thank you. Have a nice day.

  Person A: Thank you. You as well.

  However, there are an infinite number of deviations from this script that are possible, and it would be difficult to create a dialogue for each permutation. Moreover, rather than memorize each permutation, students should feel confident in adapting to different situations. The class can brainstorm all sorts of problems that could occur in this particular scenario: they are out of small cups, they only have decaf, Person B gives the wrong amount of money, the card reader doesn’t work, etc. You can also go into more unlikely territory: there is a rude customer in a rush behind Person B, Person A is ready to quit and is waiting for the best opportunity, Person A tries to cheat Person B, Person B has a crush on Person A, etc. Feel free to go super wacky for the most fun: the coffee shop is being raided by the FBI, Person B is Person A’s long-lost sibling, the coffee shop is the last open business during a zombie apocalypse, etc. Once you have a class list of possible scenarios (or a teacher-generated list that is ready to surprise students!) you can implement them in two possible ways:

  • True improvisation (i.e., students must react in the moment): One way to play around with this is an improv game called “ding” where a bell interrupts a scene, the actors must pause, and then adapt to a new suggestion. For example, the scene begins as written, but after Person A wants a small cup of coffee, the teacher could ring their bell (easily found at a dollar store) and throw in the complication “Oh no! They are out of small cups!”. Person B would have to say “I do not have a small cup. Can I give you a small amount in a big cup?” or “I do not have a small cup. Would you like a medium coffee?” Depending on the Person A’s confidence level they could either say “Okay” and return to the original script OR they could take it to the next level by saying “Are you trying to get me to pay more money? How dare you!” Depending on the level of students you can throw in one minor speed bump or a whole bunch of things until it basically dissolves into hilarious chaos. (This makes me think of an episode of the show “Parks and Rec” where they are running an emergency response drill and every few minutes an envelope is opened with a new emergency situation they need to respond to!)

  • Prepared “improvised” scenes (i.e., students are given time to rehearse): students choose one of the problems from a hat and are then given a specific amount of time to incorporate the problem into the scene using the base dialogue given. However, this new dialogue is not written down, but discussed and then performed orally.

• Using a green screen/projected images: As discussed above, you can adapt a scene to fit the specific location given. A way to really make this challenging (yet fun!) would be to have the screen change in real time, and the students need to adapt their scenes (still focusing on the base dialogue) on the fly! This would work well if you were having students perform in front of a projector, as you could cycle through a PowerPoint of various different locations.

• The middle is improv: Unlike the above scenarios, where students still have a completed script from which to depart into improv, in this case you would have students using a script with the middle deliberately left empty. I discovered this practice in a 2011 article by Jürgen Kurtz: “Breaking through the communicative cocoon: Improvisation in secondary school foreign language classrooms”. Kurtz created a specific practice for the classroom that combines scripted and unscripted elements: (a) a scripted opening lead-in, (b) an unscripted middle part, (c) a scripted end part, and finally a (d) teacher-guided or teacher-supported whole-class reflection. In his article he discusses how to do this with beginning students using the popular warm-up game called Bus Stop. Students begin with a scripted introduction of two people meeting at a bus stop. Then, one of the students takes a piece of paper from a box that suggests a prompt for the improvised portion of the scene, such as “Hey! Look at that boy over there. What is he doing?” or “I’m on the way to the pet shop. This is my cat Fluffy.” Then, once students have improvised a conversation as far as they can, or need an emergency exit from the scene, there is a scripted ending, which is “oh, here comes my bus. I have to go. Nice talking to you. Bye.” The second example he gives is for intermediate learners and is called Surprise Encounter (a game I think Kurtz invented). This game also has the benefit of practicing situational appropriateness, specifically giving, and receiving, good or bad news in the target language. There is a scripted opening, and then the learners make up the good or bad surprise news without a teacher prompt. Conversational gambits are also provided to encourage more lively exchanges, such as “You don’t say?” or “It may sound strange, but…” The ending is also scripted, though it is more sophisticated, and students have a broader range of choices to choose from, including “Well, I can see you want to be left alone. I think I better go now.” and “Anyway, I thought you’d want to know.”

• The script is inspiration. Everyone gets the same basic script, but they are only allowed to keep one line. Then you see all the directions that students’ ideas can go with the same inspiration. Also, hearing that one line feels like a fun inside joke!

What are your thoughts on scripted role-plays? Do you use them, not use them, or change them up? Share below in the comments!

Using Improv in the Classroom: Counting to 20

Your language-teaching mission, should you choose to accept it, is to use an improv counting game to reinforce numbers, build community, and practice improv skills.

Photo: Black Ice/pexels.com

Numbers are one of the first things that students are introduced to in language classes: they are concrete (no translation errors!) and useful (textbook pages, sharing ages, telling time).

I use this game with beginner students to reinforce numbers, but also with advanced learners to help build community and connection. This is also a game that I do minutes before every improv show with my troupe; we don’t go on stage until we make it to 21 (our chosen end number)!

The way it works is simple, but it is deceptively hard! A group gets in a circle (with my friends we huddle together like a football team, but that is likely too much touching for classmates) and closes their eyes. (The bigger the group, the harder this exercise is). Without consulting each other, and in no set order, the group must count consecutively. A first brave soul will say “one”. Another will say “two”. If two people say the same number at the same time, they need to start again at one. (If you’re afraid a group might default to a circle, you can make a rule that the next person who speaks can’t be to either side of the person who just said a number.)

The reason I do this before shows is that it forces a sense of togetherness and awareness of others. You start to really pay attention to the people around you and get into sync with them. You start listening hard to their breathing, to any minute movements you can sense. This is a game with winners and losers, but you all win or lose together, so you feel incredibly invested in getting this right. The feeling you get when you finally hear that final number is indescribable! If you want to build feelings of team togetherness, this would be a great way to start a class! This is also a great game for introducing improv as a concept, as you can talk about the importance of listening to others, working as a team, and building on what others contribute.

Adaptations:

• You can choose any number as your end number (though go too high and it gets waaaaaaay to difficult).

• You can also choose to go up by 2s, 3s, 5s, 10s to practice bigger numbers

• You can count down from twenty back to one

NOTE: Although this is only tangentially related, I wanted to share my absolute favorite counting video for French. The director of the video found 100 French people of ages 0 through 100 and had them say their age’s number (young kids got some help).

Have you played this game or a variation of it? Share in the comments!

The 7 Cs of Drama

Your language-teaching mission, should you choose to accept it, is to consider the 7 Cs of drama (community, communication, creativity, confidence, cultural sensitivity, carrot (not stick), and content knowledge) that are research-supported reasons to incorporate drama into the foreign language classroom.

Drama, particularly improv, is often seen as the fun reward of language classes – students are allowed some ‘play time’ as a reward for doing ‘actual learning’. In fact, I would argue that drama/improv itself is the real learning, and that the inclusion of drama into the second language classroom is incredibly important for a variety of reasons!

There is a lot of research supporting this, and below, I’ve gathered all the studies, position papers, and books that I have come across that show how amazing drama is! I’ve divided the benefits into seven categories (all conveniently starting with a C!) to make the myriad of benefits easier to see. Feel free to share this with colleagues that may doubt your pedagogical choices or to motivate your like-minded colleagues (and yourself) to include more drama activities!

To summarize, academic research shows that:

• Community – Drama/improv creates a sense of community in the language classroom

• Communication – Students are able to communicate better when using drama/improv to learn a language

• Creativity – Drama/improv lets both students and teachers be more creative

• Confidence – Students become more confident in their use of the target language when engaged in drama/improv activities

• Cultural sensitivity – Drama/improv allows students to better understand different cultures, as well as their own

• Carrot (not stick) – Students are more motivated to learn a language when engaging in drama/improv

• Content knowledge – Drama/improv improves student’s understanding of the target language (including grammar)

 To be specific: (Note: Drama is used below to refer to studies that are looking at ‘drama’ in general, and improv is used when the academic research is referring to improv activities specifically)

Community

• Students develop cooperation, social awareness, and community-building skills through drama (Angeliannawati, 2019)

• Drama creates group cohesion (Badie, 2014)

• In improv, both teachers and students must let go of their own ideas and accept the other participants’ ideas as better than their own (Keränen, 2019)

• Improv promotes inclusion of students with special needs, as “things that might be considered a disruption during other activities can be incorporated into the activity in a new way” and that “there is enough variety and flavor in improv to allow for anyone’s strengths to be made use of” (Lobman & Linquist, 2007, p. 25).

• In traditional language classrooms, students are focused on individual improvement and teachers strive to meet individual needs. However, improv performers consider their scenes as collaborations between players, and sometimes even the audience (Perone, 2011).

• The fundamentals of improv (‘yes, and’, ‘no mistakes, only opportunities’, and ‘make everyone look good’) create collaborative and supportive environments (Piccoli, 2018)

• The use of improv increases engagement, which contributes to a stronger classroom community, which in turn makes space for previously marginalized students (Smith & McKnight, 2009)

Image: https://bit.ly/3SsMyDn

Communication

• The value of improv is that students can immediately apply new language structures and that students can focus on engaging with the language rather than rules (Florea, 2011)

• Decades of research have shown that drama improves L2 speaking skills (Galante, 2018)

• The repetitive nature of drama activities helped build fluency and helped students develop strategies for all types of novel speaking tasks (Galante & Thomson, 2017)

• Improvised scenes disappear and forevermore unattainable, forcing teachers and learns to be in the moment (Keränen, 2019)

• A priori scripts, such as written dialogues found in many language textbooks, are fixed, and therefore convey to learners that there is a right and wrong way to communicate. In contrast, emergent scripts, such as improv scenes, show that communication has infinite possible iterations (Perone, 2011)

Creativity

• Student’s imaginations and capacity for independent, critical and creative thinking are developed through drama (Angeliannawati, 2019)

• Drama in L2 learning can foster imagination (Belliveau & Kim, 2013)

• A theatrical focus in the language class makes students more spontaneous and creative, as well as less inhibited by their linguistic limits (Cristea, 2019)

• Improv allows students to think and act more creatively and freely “by using their minds, bodies and voices to produce texts” (Lenters & Smith, 2018, p. 188)

• The process-focused nature of improv allows students to explore an infinite number of possible scenarios (Piccoli, 2018)

• Drama improves students’ creativity through the use of imagination, independent thinking, and risk-taking (Rojabi & Mustofa, 2021)

Confidence

• Drama improves students’ self-confidence and communication skills while lessening speaking anxiety (Atas, 2015)

• Drama in L2 learning can increase learner confidence (Belliveau & Kim, 2013)

• By allowing students to use fictional contexts, and therefore embody fictional characters, students are less anxious (Even, 2004)

• Drama activities lower foreign-language anxiety (Galante, 2018)

• Students can minimize anxiety by creating a target language-speaking persona who is able to take the risks while “mitigating the loss of one’s self” (Gillette & Perry, 2021, p. 586)

• Drama creates an “error-tolerant instructional environment, distinguishing clearly between opportunities for communicative action and opportunities for communicative reflection (including systematic error treatment and language practice)” (Kurtz, 2011, p. 150)

• In traditional language classes, learners see themselves as novices and can therefore be hindered by their own anxiety around making errors. When using improv, however, performers make the assumption that everyone is an expert and that there is no standard or expectations of perfection (Perone, 2011)

• The most improvement in confidence for students using drama activities was those who self-identified as being the most anxious at the start of the course (Piazzoli, 2011)

• Improv builds students’ self-confidence by letting them focus on their natural desire to play rather on the possibility of embarrassment (Piccoli, 2018)

• Students were more motivated and confident on speaking and writing tasks when engaged in improv-based literacy activities (Smith & McKnight, 2009)

Cultural sensitivity

• Drama furthers cross-cultural understanding (Angeliannawati, 2019)

• Drama in L2 learning can promote intercultural communicative competence (Belliveau & Kim, 2013)

• Students who learned through drama were better able to reflect critically about culture (Bournot-Trites, et al., 2007)

• Students are better able to understand the target culture (Gillette & Perry, 2021)

• In exploring, and creating dramatic texts, “students may explore their own cultures and identities rather than simply being exposed to the culture of the target language or rehearsing language in a behaviorist fashion” (McGovern, 2017, p. 10)

• Drama allows students to share their own culture with peers (Ntelioglou, 2011)

Image: https://bit.ly/3xNGvSb

Carrot (not stick)

• Students who learned through drama had more intrinsic motivation and wrote more of their own volition (Bournot-Trites, et al., 2007)

• By disrupting traditional language learning, students learning through drama are able to “negotiate and take control over their learning identities” (Cahmann-Taylor & McGovern, 2021, p. 32)

• Students and teachers have more freedom, as unlike in most outcome-based instruction, the outcomes of improv do not have to be predetermined or the same for every student (Lenters & Smith, 2018)

• Students are more motivated when using drama due to authentic texts and use of dramatic tension (Piazzoli, 2011)

• The playful nature of improv increases student engagement (Smith & McKnight, 2009)

Content knowledge

• Students acquire fully contextualized vocabulary, grammar, and a better understanding of idiomatic expressions through drama (Angeliannawati, 2019)

• Drama increases students’ engagement in, and understanding of, grammatical concepts (Even, 2004 & 2011)

• Improv is an interrelated cognitive and social activity that allows students to help each other negotiate the gaps in their individual linguistic knowledge sets (Kurtz, 2011)

• Vygotsky’s framework of the Zones of Proximal Development dovetail with improv, as both involve taking risks, making mistakes, and supporting others on their language journeys (Lobman & Lundquist, 2007)

• Drama can be used to reinforce grammar concepts if students are given appropriate activities and linguistic guidance (Mochizuki & Ortega, 2008)

• In a controlled study comparing a drama condition and a traditional instruction condition, students’ understanding of verb tenses improved when taught using drama (O’Gara, 2008)

• Drama “revealed inadequacies of language skills which had somehow remained hidden from more traditional methods of assessment” (O’Gara, 2008, p. 163)

What are your thoughts about the 7 Cs of drama/improv? Is there an eighth C that you think I missed? Share in the comments!

 Sources:

• Angelianawati, L. (2019). Using drama in EFL classroom. Journal of English Teaching, 5(2), 125-134.

• Atas, M. (2015). The reduction of speaking anxiety in EFL learners through drama techniques. Procedia, Social and Behavioral Sciences, 176, 961-969.

• Badie, G. T. (2014). Using theater concepts in the TESOL classroom. The CATESOL Journal, 26(1), 23-28.

• Belliveau, G., & Kim, W. (2013). Drama in L2 learning: A research synthesis. Scenario (Cork), VII(2), 7-27.

• Bournot-Trites, M., Belliveau, G., Spiliotopoulos, V., & Séror, J. (2007). The role of drama on cultural sensitivity, motivation and literacy in a second language context. Journal for Learning through the Arts: A Research Journal on Arts Integration in Schools and Communities, 3(1), Article 9, 1-35.

• Cahnmann-Taylor, M. & McGovern, K.R. (2021). Enlivening instruction with drama and improv: A guide for second language and world language teachers. Routledge.

• Cristea, E. (2019). Theatrical activities in the foreign language class: Activités théâtrales dans la classe de langues étrangères. Euromentor Journal, 10(2), 71-82.

• Cunico, S. (2005). Teaching language and intercultural competence through drama: Some suggestions for a neglected resource. Language Learning Journal, 31(1), 21-29.

• Dundar, S. (2013). Nine drama activities for foreign language classrooms: Benefits and challenges. Procedia, Social and Behavioral Sciences, 70, 1424-1431.

• Even, S. (2004). Dramagrammar in Theory and Practice. GFL-Journal 1: 35-51.

• Even, S. (2011). Drama grammar: Towards a performative postmethod pedagogy. The Language Learning Journal, 39:3, 299-312.

• Florea, P. (2011). Using improvisation exercises for increasing speaking and listening skills. Asian EFL Journal, 52, 46-57.

• Galante, A. (2018). Drama for L2 speaking and language anxiety: Evidence from Brazilian EFL learners. RELC Journal, 49(3), 273-289.

• Galante, A., & Thomson, R. I. (2017). The effectiveness of drama as an instructional approach for the development of second language oral fluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness. TESOL Quarterly, 51(1), 115-142.

• Gillette, C. A. R., & Perry, K. H. (2021). Performing fluency: Using improv and drama with adult English learners. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 64(5), 585-588.

• Keränen, A. (2019). Finish language teaching through improvisation – Conforming the educational values within an improvisational frame. The Romanian Journal for Baltic and Nordic Studies, 11:2, 63-78.

• Kurtz, J. (2011). Breaking through the communicative cocoon: Improvisation in secondary school foreign language classrooms. In R. Sawyer (Ed.), Structure and improvisation in creative teaching (pp. 133-161). Cambridge University Press.

• Lenters, K., & Smith, C. (2018). Assembling improv and collaborative story building in language arts class. The Reading Teacher, 72(2), 179-189.

• Lobman, C., & Lundquist, M. (2007). Unscripted learning: Using improv activities across the K-8 curriculum. New York: Teachers College Press.

• McGovern, K. R. (2017). Conceptualizing drama in the second language classroom. Scenario (Cork), XI(1), 4-16.

• Mochizuki, N., & Ortega, L. (2008). Balancing communication and grammar in beginning-level foreign language classrooms: A study of guided planning and relativization. Language Teaching Research: LTR, 12(1), 11-37.

• Ntelioglou, B.Y. (2011). Insights from a drama-EAL classroom: Using drama with English language learners in a Canadian high school. In J. Winston (Ed.), Second language learning through drama (pp. 93-103). New York: Routledge.

• O'Gara, P. (2008). To be or have not been: Learning language tenses through drama. Issues In Educational Research, 18(2), 156-166.

• Perone, A. (2011). Improvising with adult English language learners. In R. Sawyer (Ed.), Structure and improvisation in creative teaching (pp. 162-183). Cambridge University Press.

• Piazzoli, E. (2011). Process drama: The use of affective space to reduce language anxiety in the additional language learning classroom. Research in Drama Education, 16(4), 557-573.

• Piccoli, M. W. (2018). Improvisation: A creative theatrical technique to engage English language learners. TESOL Journal, 9(4). doi:10.1002/tesj.390

• Rojabi, A. R., & Mustofa, A. (2021). Exploiting drama for children in EFL teaching to promote creativity, confidence, and motivation. Journal of English Education and Teaching, 5(4), 544-555.

• Smith, K., & McKnight, K. S. (2009). Remembering to laugh and explore: Improvisational activities for literacy teaching in urban classrooms. International Journal of Education and the Arts, 10(12).

Addressing Arguments Against Drama

Your language-teaching mission, should you choose to accept it, is to consider the rebuttals against some common arguments against incorporating drama into the language classroom.

Ali J Chan/Getty Images

We know that drama is an incredibly powerful way to for students to engage with language learning. However, often there are concerns from teachers about incorporating it into their teaching practice. Below are some commonly heard issues and my responses to them. I’d like to note that these responses were greatly informed by the work of others, particularly Ryoka (see below).

“I am not a drama expert!”

That okay! In fact, the majority of resources available for incorporating drama into the second language classroom are created for teachers with little to no drama experience in mind. As Lobman and Lundquist say in their instructional book for teachers on how to use improv, “improv is too valuable a learning tool to only be used by specialists” (p. xv). If you are looking for some guidance from experts, I cannot recommend the book Enlivening instruction with drama and improv: A guide for second language and world language teachers highly enough, and if you had to use only one resource (other than this website, of course!) this would be the one. Remember, you don’t need to stage a huge theatrical production in order to be teaching using drama. Instead, you can start slowly, incorporating a few games or activities into your existing lesson plans. 

“This is all about fun, and not about learning!”

When I hear this, my first thought is always, why can’t learning BE fun? My second thought is that I can’t think of a language learning model that doesn’t involve communicating effectively through speaking as a high priority. What I think this is actually asking is ‘where’s all the grammar?’ Don’t worry though, grammar (even explicitly taught grammar) has its place in drama/improv (see: post about Drama Grammar). Drama games can reinforce grammatical concepts (see: “What are you doing?”) and improv scenes are as legitimate of a way for students to share what they know as writing on a piece of paper.

“I don’t want to look foolish in front of my class!”

Neither do your students… at first. But what’s the worst thing that could happen? You have a class where foolishness (i.e. mistakes) are normalized and even welcomed! There’s laughter, and sharing, and an understanding that we’re all in this together. Also, if you expect your students to take risks, you need to be willing to model some of your own risk taking! Remember that incorporating drama is not about the teacher performing in front of the class, but a co-created experience between the teacher and students. If this is a big concern, go slowly and incorporate a few games or activities at a time until you feel more confident.

“My students don’t have the language skills!”

I’m not saying that you should expect students to create long, in-depth scenes the first day that they start class, but I am saying that you can start with drama/improv on day one! There are a ton of non-verbal games that still build community and introduce thinking about communication skills. Moreover, body language conveys so much more than we give it credit for!

“I have some very shy students!”

Personally, I was very shy as a child, and theatre was one of the ways that I was able to get out of my shell. Specifically, I remember a drama workshop sponsored by BC Hydro that came to my elementary school in grade four that was the catalyst for me realizing I was good at improvising. Therefore, while I wholeheartedly agree that adaptations and accommodations should be made for students, I strongly suggest you find ways to include them in speaking-roles. Some classes (and students) are less enthusiastic than others, which means starting smaller, giving more time for preparation and encouragement, and scaffolding more.  

“I don’t have the time for this!”

If you’re worried about planning time, I have some great news for you! I find drama easy to prep for, because my lesson plans can literally have a 40-minute chunk of time that only says “scenes”, but I’m still confident an incredible amount of learning will be happening. (It also makes writing substitute plans a breeze once students know the games!) If you’re worried about fitting it into the many, many curricular outcomes of your courses, I would urge you to remember that time spent on direct instruction does not equal time spent learning. I found that students retained more, even though we spent less time in drill-and-kill mode, because they were able to take ownership of their learning and put it into practice almost immediately. As for me, this gave me much needed time to check in with students individually, observe them, or even have a glass of water uninterrupted!

“My students would never do this/they’ll just goof off!”

I cannot emphasize enough the power of peer pressure. Students don’t want to look foolish in front of their peers, and therefore will be more on-task than given a worksheet. They want to get laughs, and look competent in front of their classmates. That being said, making sure that the classroom is emotionally safe (i.e., laughter is always with, not at) is incredibly important before asking students to take risks.

“All my colleagues will think I’m unprofessional!”

It’s true that there are teachers out there that view drama as less academic or less focused on the subject matter of the language.  Rather than present your choice to include drama into the curriculum as incorporating drama for drama’s sake, you can explain it to your colleagues as fulfilling the objective of overcoming students’ resistance to using the target language, and creating a need for speaking. You can also explain that you’re not giving up your textbook, to instead think of drama as another way to bring the textbook more authenticity. If they still don’t see value, there is so much research out there that supports drama in the foreign language classroom that you can direct them towards (see: post about academic research supporting drama). Finally, I would ask you, is it more important that your students have a meaningful and fun experience with language learning, or that your colleagues are appeased?

If you have any other concerns you’d like me to address, or anything to add to these rebuttals, please leave a comment below!

Resources consulted when writing this post:

• Angelianawati, L. (2019). Using drama in EFL classroom. Journal of English Teaching, 5(2), 125-134.

• Atas, M. (2015). The reduction of speaking anxiety in EFL learners through drama techniques. Procedia, Social and Behavioral Sciences, 176, 961-969.

• Cahnmann-Taylor, M. & McGovern, K.R. (2021). Enlivening instruction with drama and improv: A guide for second language and world language teachers. Routledge.

• Even, S. (2004). Dramagrammar in Theory and Practice. GFL-Journal 1: 35-51.

• Lobman, C., and Lundquist, M. (2007). Unscripted learning: Using improv activities across the K-8 curriculum. New York: Teachers College Press.

• Perone, A. (2011). Improvising with adult English language learners. In R. Sawyer (Ed.), Structure and improvisation   in creative teaching (pp. 162-183). Cambridge University Press.

• Royka, J. (2002). Overcoming the fear of using drama in English language teaching. The Internet TESL Journal, 18(6), 156-166.

Using Improv in the Classroom: Games for Novices

Your language teaching mission, should you choose to accept it, is to use improv games to work with novice language learners.

I want to be very clear that this is not about learners who haven’t done improv before (though these games are useful for that too!) but for students who are in the beginning of their interactions in the target language. That is to say, you can do improv with learners starting on DAY 1 of language class!

Image source: https://www.bbbpress.com/2013/10/drama-game-gibberish-conversation/

I’ve put links to videos explaining common improv games ( Zip, Zap, Zop and Gibberish) and included in the summary how to adapt specifically for a language class. All of these games come from Perone’s 2011 article “Improvising with adult English language learners” with some additional notes from Piccoli’s 2018 article “Improvisation: A creative theatrical technique to engage English language learners.” Though, as I’ve mentioned before, these games are hard to attribute to anyone in particular!

• Names and Motions/Names and Sounds: Each person says their name and does a spontaneous physical motion or sound. The group then repeats the name and motion/sound back to the person. Perone (2011) notes this was helpful in establishing a judgement-free environment and discouraging friendly teasing or negative feedback.

• Zip, Zap, Zop: The sounds “zip”, “zap”, and “zop” are passed around a circle. Piccoli (2018) comments that this is an “excellent game to get the students excited about playing, to pay close attention to their classmates, and to stay in the moment” (p. 6). Perone (2011) adapted this game to include category-specific vocabulary, such as passing around “mother”, “father”, “daughter”, or creating sentences, such as “I”, “have”, “a”, “daughter”.

• The Ball: An imaginary ball is passed around. One can focus on names and sounds (see above) or vocabulary words confined to a certain topic. If doing the latter, the category (i.e., numbers, family members, or symptoms and illnesses) can be changed at any time. Perone (2011) explains that he made an effort not to help with translations but encourage learners to support each other in order to remind them that “We all have English”. Piccoli (2018), in describing a similar game, notes that “is fast-paced and less stressful than obliging students to create full, grammatically correct sentences” (p. 6). You can also follow up with the game “Pass the Ball” which focuses on repititon of the same vocabulary or phrases with different volume, pace, expression, etc.

• Gibberish: Students utter nonsensical sounds in order to convey meaning through non-word means. This is great for focusing on the non-word aspects of communication, like gesture, tone or pitch. Perone (2011) chose to use this activity when students were “overly focused on grammatical accuracy, judged the accents of one or more learners in the class, or deliberated too much on what to say or write during an improv activity” (p. 178).

• Word Cards: Students have a collection of index cards that are blank or have words. The teacher says a sentence or question aloud and the students find (or create) the cards to form what they heard. Students can also embody the sentence or question by standing with the index cards in their hands, in order. This activity can also be used to create emergent scripts where students create sentences by putting together their respective cards in order. Perone (2011) notes that he modeled communicative competence by focusing on the collaboration of making sentences and questions rather than focusing on grammatical rules. This is also similar to Soup, which is the same as words cards, but with individual letters on index cards instead of words.

References:

Perone, A. (2011). In R. Sawyer (Ed.), Structure and improvisation in creative teaching (pp. 162-183). Cambridge University Press.

Piccoli, M. W. (2018). Improvisation: A creative theatrical technique to engage English language learners. TESOL Journal, 9(4). doi:10.1002/tesj.390

What is it? Improv Grammar Game

Your language teaching mission, should you choose to accept it, is to use the “What is it?” improv game to improve vocabulary and/or target grammatical structures.

 This is a similar game to another improv grammar game: “What are you doing?” but it involves props and less physicality from students.

Source: FreePik

Materials needed: a variety of regular items (or irregular if you have them) that are different in shape and size. I can usually find everything I need in my classroom for a quick round (such as a stapler, a scarf, a pencil, and a hat), but if you play this multiple times you might need to start bringing in some truly unusual stuff to keep the students on their toes!

This game was mentioned as an example of the “awareness raising phase” in Even’s (2004) Drama Grammar method, but it’s also a well-known warm-up game. The way it is played is that the class sits in a circle and an object is passed around while students ask each other “what is it?” and are given an answer by another student. The only wrong answers are to correctly identify the object or repeat what someone else has said. So, for example, if a scarf is being passed around, student B will ask student A “what is that?” and student A will say “this is my pet snake” and pass the scarf to student B. Then student C will ask student B “what is that?” and student B will respond “a magical flying carpet” and pass it to student C, etc. After students get comfortable with the game, you can introduce a more physical element by having them interact with the object (i.e. make the scarf wiggle and hiss for “a snake” or ride on it for “a magic flying carpet”). Change out the object once it’s gone around the circle or all options have been exhausted.

This activity can be used as a fun way to start off the class and/or have students dig deep for vocabulary. It can also be used for targeted grammar instruction. For example, how to differentiate between this/that, how to ask questions, or how to use the conditional when being polite (i.e., polite ways to retrieve the object from the previous person with phrases like “could you please pass that to me…?” or  “would you be so kind as to give me that…?”)

Adaptations:

• When the student identifies the object, have the rest of the class repeat it back in chorus (i.e. Student A: “This is a snake”, the whole class: “That is a snake”).

• Have multiple items going around at once so everyone stays engaged! Or break into smaller groups, each with their own object which they then pass on to the next group when they’ve done one or two rounds.

• Allow students to use a dictionary or translator. Since they may be using unfamiliar vocabulary, the teacher or another student can write the new words on the board… and then use that new vocabulary as prompts for an improv free scene!

• For more advanced learners, add layers of complexity to the answers, such as adjectives. Thus, it’s not just a snake, it’s “my pet snake” or “a small snake” or “a sneaky snake”.

• For students that may be unsure, start with a whole-class brainstorm using a sample object. Students will see that they can transform the object into anything they want and there are no wrong answers. Alternatively, show students the object you will use and then give students a few minutes thinking and discussion time to decide what they will present it as (have them come up with at least one alternative in case someone takes their answer!)

How do you use this game in your classroom? Feel free to share in the comments!

Using improv in the language classroom: Drama Grammar Part II

Your language teaching mission, should you choose to accept it, is to use the Drama Grammar method to structure improv lessons in your classroom that are grammatically focused.

This is Part II in a two-part series about the Drama Grammar method created by Susanne Evens. In the first post I explored the method, as outlined by Evens in her 2004 and 2011 articles. In this post I will be explaining how I would adapt Drama Grammar for my particular context (middle and high school students) and teaching style.

SCROLL DOWN TO DOWNLOAD THE DRAMA GRAMMAR TEMPLATE

The framework proposed by Even is fantastic, and as I outlined in my previous post, has a lot that I like about it! However, for use in my own classroom, there are a few adaptations that I wanted to make, such as making it a non-linear and reducing it to four phases. What I wanted to address by revising the framework was:

• It seems from her articles that Even has an almost exclusive focus on Drama Grammar in her second language classroom. While I really like the model, I wanted something more flexible and easier to integrate into other lesson plans.

• Even taught second-year German to students at the University of Leicester for a full academic year; I teach younger students (ages 13-18) and do not have a full year with them. I wanted to have a framework that would work for shorter attention spans and shorter class times. Therefore, the awareness-raising and context-finding phases can be combined into one phase of ‘context-exploration’.

• Moreover, four phases fits nicely with the Systemic Functional Linguistics model of the teaching-learning cycle (Gebhard, 2019; Gibbons, 2015) which begins with “building the field or context” as its first step

• While I understand that the context-finding phase is trying to create an authentic need for the language structure, I think that it is difficult to mimic real-world contexts in a classroom using a game or activity. Rather than try to force this, I would put the emphasis on finding authenticity in the scenes being created by students. I think just creating a need for a grammatical structure in order to play a game can be enough.

• Even used a lot of process drama techniques and activities (such as teacher-in-role, co-constructing, hot-seating, assuming the mantle of the expert, etc.). While I think there is value to process drama, I tend to favor the more classic improvisational games, which can tend to be more goofy and less focused on creating authentic contexts (see above).

• The presentation phase is, by its name, focused on presentation of scenes. I would like this to be optional, and focus more on the dramatic play phase, as I want to be more process orientated than production orientated (see here for further discussions on how drama can be conceptualized in the classroom). Therefore, the two phases are combined into a ‘story phase’ to put the emphasis on the narrative being co-constructed by students.

• I don’t want to be confined to a liner model. Instead, the phases could easily flow into each other or be moved around.  For example, students could weave between the context-exploration phase and the grammar phase, or alternatively the grammar phase and the story phase, as the teacher adds in more information.  Alternatively, students could be in the story phase, be asked to reflect, and then return to the story phase to make adjustments based on their reflections before presenting.

Therefore, for use in my own classroom, I would break the Drama Grammar method into these four phases:

1. Context-exploration phase: the need for a structure is introduced through small games or scenarios. Students may be given sentence stems or models, though grammatical instruction is not given at this point.

2. Grammar phase: explicit or co-constructed grammar lesson(s) occurs.

3. Story phase: students create scenes based on a prompt (visual, textual, or vocabulary, etc.) and focus on incorporating the newly learned grammatical structure. Presentation can be to the whole group, another smaller group, just the teacher, or to no audience at all. (If you’re looking for some different prompts to start your scenes, check out this post!)

4. Reflection Phase: students reflect on their grammar use, but also their ability to tell a story, cooperate with peers, and engage with their own learning.

I was explaining these ideas to a friend recently and joked that it’s now the (L)even model of Drama Grammar: it’s all Susanne Even’s ideas but I, Aviva Levin, have come along and changed it up a bit!  Joking aside, I wanted to share with you the planning sheet I created to help facilitate my own lesson construction:

DOWNLOAD RESOURCE (.DOC): Drama Grammar Planning Template.docx

DOWNLOAD RESOURCE (.PDF): Drama Grammar Planning Template.pdf

I’ve made an example of how I would use this model for my own lessons. For example, if I were to do adapt my Theatre of the Absurd lesson, which deals with inverted questions and absurdist story telling techniques, to a Drama Grammar framework, I would plan it out like this:

 You can see that we start in the context-exploration phase, go into a grammar discussion, and then return to the same game (the delightful BOOGERS!) to re-explore with our new knowledge. I also am still unsure about the prompt I want to use for students: should it be a bag of objects or a hat full of words? Some classes might not need to prompt at all, and some might need more structure. I also have students presenting to each other and then only two groups presenting to the class. As for the reflections, I broke it into two: one think/pair/share about our understanding of the absurdist genre (reflecting on understanding and performing) and an exit slip (reflecting on grammar; I’d likely have students put two questions on a sticky note, then place it on a traffic light I have in the classroom to signal how well they think they understand inverted questions (red=still struggling; yellow=think I’m getting there; green=I feel very confident). One thing to think about is how the new knowledge is going to be reinforced after the lesson. Like Even had in her sample workshop, perhaps there will be a homework assignment? If I were to stick to my original lesson for the Theatre of the Absurd, students would write new scripts independently and I would check them over the next class.

What are your thoughts about how I’ve adapted the original Drama Grammar method? What adaptations would you want to make to have it fit in your own classroom? Share in the comments!

Using improv in the language classroom: Drama Grammar Part I

Your language teaching mission, should you choose to accept it, is to use the Drama Grammar method to structure improv lessons in your classroom that are grammatically focused.

This is Part I in a two-part series about the Drama Grammar method created by Susanne Evens. In this post I will be exploring the method, as outlined by Evens in her 2004 and 2011 articles. In Part II I will be explaining how I would adapt Drama Grammar for my particular context (middle and high school students) and teaching style.

Recognizing a need for grammar instruction, but wanting to stay away from traditional models, Even created the Drama Grammar method in 2004.

I was introduced to this approach in Susanne Even’s 2004 article “Dramagrammar in Theory and Practice”, in which she explained a new learning model that she has created called “Dramagrammar” (note: by 2011 it was changed to “Drama Grammar”). Drama Grammar was created when Even noticed that post-secondary students were entering universities without proficient grammatical knowledge, which she attributed to an emphasis on communication skills above grammar structures in their previous language education. Nonetheless, even when grammar instruction was introduced at the post-secondary level, students seemed unable to transfer this knowledge into their oral production. Even describes Drama Grammar as “a combination of language in use and language reflection” that integrates “dramatic acting with conscious language analysis” (2004, p. 42).  By replacing traditional grammar, which is devoid of meaning and context, with Drama Grammar, students are given more autonomy as their instructor is more of a guide than a font of knowledge and language learning becomes more social as teamwork is encouraged.

The Six Phases of Drama Grammar

Drama Grammar lessons are broken into six different phases:

1. Awareness-raising phase: grammar structures are elicited from students by creating imaginary situations in which the structure is necessary, usually in small warm-up games

2. Context-finding phase: learners use the structure during an improvised scene that mimics real-world contexts that necessitate the same grammar in a concrete form

3. Linguistic phase:  the dramatic flow is interrupted, and the teacher either explicitly teaches the grammar structure or encourages students to work out the rules themselves. This stage is placed in the middle instead of the beginning so that students have already experienced why they need this structure in order to communicate, which creates greater engagement.

4. Dramatic play phase: students draft and rehearse longer, more in-depth improvised scenes using their new grammatical knowledge

5. Presentation phase: students present their improvisations to their peers.

6. Reflection phase: students settle any remaining questions they have, talk about what worked or did not work, give praise, and reflect on their language awareness and learning process.

Sample Workshop

At the end of her 2004 article, Even runs through a workshop that she has previously delivered to language teachers at a conference, which was taught in English, in order to demonstrate how a Drama Grammar lesson might be taught:

1. First, in the awareness-raising phase, chairs are set up in pairs in a circle around a ‘stage’: one chair (the ‘observer’) can see what is happening on the stage, one (the ‘listener’) cannot. The teacher enters the room, wearing a mask, and performs a short pantomime, then leaves. The observer then describes what they see to the listener. Next, the listeners turn around, and when the teacher re-enters, they tell her what to do, based on the description they received. Once that is complete, the observers describe how the first and second pantomimes differed based on what had been described to the listeners by the observers. Finally, the teacher does the original pantomime, and both the listeners and the observers discuss the differences between the performances. Students are encouraged to use reported speech forms (e.g. “I told John that the person was walking around, but John then said that the person should sit down immediately”).

2. The class then enters the linguistic phase (note: the order of the phases are presented differently in the workshop example than in the article). The class discusses indirect/reported speech, and small groups write out what they believe to be the rules, and any questions they have, on large papers which they present to the larger group.

3. Next, in the context-finding stage, the class plays a modified version of ‘Telephone’ where sentences are said aloud, not whispered, and the wording is changed slightly each time, using reported speech. For example, if the first person says “Yesterday I went to the new bistro. It’s expensive, but the waiter is cute!”, the second person will say “Susanne says she went to the new bistro yesterday. She told me her meal cost a lot of money, and I think she has a crush on the waiter!”. At the end of the activity, the instructor addresses any questions about reported speech.

4. The next activity, as part of the drama play phase, is a continuation of the previous game. In small groups students present a visual/verbal presentation, which are tableaus of a transforming rumor that they have created.

5. Lastly, students are given homework that allows them to transfer their new knowledge to different contexts. In this example, students are given a text within which they must find all the forms of indirect speech, and identify the grammatical tense being used.  

What I like about Drama Grammar:

• The inclusion of a step of explicit reflection, which I am realizing that I need to do more of in my language classroom. Also, students have an opportunity to discuss the form and rules in an exploratory and collaborative manner rather than receive direct instruction.

• Personally, in the past, I would have been reluctant to pair a small group grammar discovery activity with improv because of the feeling that it was too much time wasted. Instead, I would have paired improv with an explicit grammar lesson, perhaps because I felt the need to prove that the improv activity was an extension of a more ‘valid’ traditional lesson. This method has made me consider some of my own pedagogical biases and how they influence my classroom practices.

• How Evens situates Drama Grammar within postmethod pedagogy, which resonates with me as a pedagogical framework as the emphasis is on “particularity, practicality, and possibility”. This helps me anticipate a common question that I get asked when I talk about improv in the foreign language classroom, which is “where does grammar come into this?” Within the context of postmethod pedagogy, I feel confident in saying, “as much or as little as your context requires”!

• The psychological and pedagogical benefits that Even observed in her students. Psychologically, students felt less afraid to make mistakes, and were willing to take more risks. They also felt more confident and motivated, and were able to form deeper connections with peers. Pedagogically, students were able to understand grammar both cognitively and contextually, and saw its utility beyond classroom exercises. This also enabled students to be better able to self-monitor their language learning, and made them more comfortable with grammar topics in general.

Links to check out:

• Even, S. (2004). Dramagrammar in theory and practice. GFL-Journal 1: 35-51.

• Even, S. (2011). Drama grammar: Towards a performative postmethod pedagogy. The Language Learning Journal, 39:3, 299-312.

• Slideshow: “Acting French: Avoiding grammatical drama by using drama to teach grammar” (synthesis of the method in six slides)

• Susanne Even’s Indiana University Bloomington profile

Check out Part II, where I will discuss how I hope to adapt Even’s Drama Grammar for my own context. What are your thoughts on Drama Grammar? Feel free to share in the comments!

Boogers!: Improv Grammar Game

Your language teaching mission, should you choose to accept it, is to get students asking grammatically correct questions while trying not to laugh by using the improv grammar game ‘boogers’.

 When I was a kid, we’d play a game at camp that we called “boogers”. The idea was that you’d ask a question (any question) and the person must reply with ‘boogers’ with an absolutely serious face. If you laughed or even smiled a tiny bit you ‘lost’ and it was the other person’s turn. As kids, it was difficult to keep a straight face, because boogers are hilarious! Some examples would be:

• What is your favorite food? BOOGERS.

• Who’s your best friend? BOOGERS.

• What do you want to be when you grow up? BOOGERS.

• How do you spell your name? BOOGERS

Now, I use this fun improv game in my classroom as a warm-up to practice grammatically correct questions, and also to have some fun! We play in small groups of about 4-6 people. The first person to start must not show any reaction on their face other than to say the word. (The word “boogers” may or may not be classroom appropriate, so depending on your situation, any word can be used. I choose ‘Un pingouin’ for my French classes, which I explain more about below). Students ask questions until Person A cracks (even the little uptick of a lip counts!) and then chooses the next person to be bombarded with questions. When the time is up (10 minutes usually suffices) the person who held out for the longest number of questions in a row wins.

Some variations/modifications:

• If you notice that students are preternaturally good at this game (i.e. they are able to hold out easily, even under rapid fire questions, or really funny questions) then you can add an element of humorous challenge: actions! Wiggle like a penguin, say it with a high-pitched voice, also wear a silly hat… anything to help amp up the silliness!

• For students who may need more guidance hand out sentence stems for forming questions and a bank of vocabulary

• For students who need encouragement for expanding their question repertoire you can distribute dice and tell students they need to roll the die before asking their question. So, for example, if they roll (1) they must ask a question starting with ‘who’ (ex. who is the principal? BOOGERS!), (2) what, (3) where, (4) when, (5) why, and (6) how.

• If you think one student might dominate the question asking, you can make a rule that everyone else must get a turn asking a question before a student can ask another

• To not center specific students for any period of time you can go around in a circle where the person being asked a question changes, and it’s a simple collection of points (break or not break) that determines the winner

I teach high school, where boogers have lost (some, not all) comedic value, so I use the French word for ‘penguin’ which is “un pingouin”. I have several reasons for this:

Source: https://www.lexpress.fr/culture/musique/video-carla-bruni-imite-le-pingouin-dans-son-nouveau-clip_1263513.html

• “Pingouin” is a very fun word for English speakers to say because it involves making sounds that we don’t normally hear in English

• Because this is a difficult word so say, it is a great opportunity to introduce students to forvo.com, an excellent site for listening to authentic pronunciations in hundreds of languages

• I can introduce this activity with a music video (see my blog post here for more ways I like to use music videos while teaching) using the adorable video of Carla Bruni’s song, “Le Pingouin”.

• Because high school students are more able to keep a flat face, in order to make them more likely to break into a smile or laughter I will sometimes make them also wiggle like the penguin-people in the music video while they answer “un pingouin”.

• To me, it is equally, if not more, funny, to answer questions like “how many siblings do you have?” with “a penguin” as it is “boogers!”

• I tend to play this game during my comedy unit, which has a goal of mastering inverted questions. I usually play it the day after our Theatre of the Absurd lesson, as this is a good practice for questioning techniques and is very much an example of an inadvertent absurdist dialogue! Un pingouin is more in line with the absurdist nature than ‘boogers’.

• During my comedy unit I open with each class with the word of the day, all of which are idioms. There are no idioms I know of that involve boogers, but there is one that is penguin based: Se sentir comme un pingouin dans le désert!  (Feel like an outsider / feel like a fish out of water). This also works because I tend to follow this activity with my inverted questions idiom worksheet (resource can be found here).

Have you played this game or any of its variations? Share how it went in the comments!

Theatre of the Absurd: Teaching With Drama

Your language-teaching mission, should you choose to accept it, is to use a Theatre of the Absurd scene so that students can explore the Absurdist movement, comprehend when and how to use inverted questions, engage in textual analysis, and show their understanding through creating their own dialogues.

Image source: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/beckett-s-waiting-for-godot-was-ugly-jet-of-marsh-gas-that-enraged-censors-5cr6tth6z

I do a whole comedy unit with high intermediate learners (the third or fourth year of them taking language classes) where we talk about comedy is and what forms it can take (stand-up, comics, cartoons, improv, sit-coms, mime, etc.) One of my favorite sections is to examine the Theatre of the Absurd, though this activity can be done with any other unit or as a quick one-off lesson! The Theatre of the Absurd movement is more of a “tragi-comedy”, as the humor comes from the lack of meaning the universe has to offer us (HILARIOUS!). But seriously, so much of humor is absurd, and there is a lot of word play to explore as well. I’m going to be using a French text as an example of how I teach this lesson, but the most famous Theatre of the Absurd play is “Waiting for Godot” and I’m sure you can adapt this lesson to any language!

I don’t normally teach using scripted plays, but I make an exception here, because it ultimately ends up with students creating their own! As for the activities I describe, the script I’m referring to is from En Direct 1, which was published in 1993. These textbooks are no longer in print, so I feel comfortable sharing it below. (Nelson Publishing, if I’m wrong, I’m happy to take it down!)

This text was originally a play written by Roland Dubillard in 1953 which aimed to demonstrate the tenets of the Theatre of the Absurd movement: life is meaningless and the universe is inexplicable. Then, the En Direct 1 textbook adapted an excerpt for French language learners. In comparing the text to the original, I’d say that I would much rather use the adapted text with my students, however some of you may have much more advanced learners in your class who would appreciate the original (and you could watch the video of French actors performing it). The adapted text is shorter, has simpler vocabulary, the subjunctive is removed, and any reference to smoking and alcohol are removed. Most importantly, all the questions were put in the inverted form in order to highlight that particular grammatical feature, such as transforming the original’s simple “Pourquoi?” into “Pourquoi ne supportez-vous pas la pluie?”. However, in my opinion, Dubillard’s original message remains within the modified text. For me, this is also an opportunity to practice some teacher transperancy and discuss with students why I make the choices that I do. I would be interested in their thoughts on authentic texts versus adapted texts and/or their thoughts on censoring mentions of smoking and drinking.

Potential learning objectives:

• Recognizing the inverted questioning technique (how it is constructed and when it is used)

• Listening comprehension (this can be paired with a fill-in-the-blanks activity where students listen for the questions and how they are constructed)

• Textual analysis through the genre of the Theatre of the Absurd

• Cultural competence through understanding the French historical context of the Absurdist movement

• Practicing speaking through creating an absurdist mini-scene

RESOURCE: Theatre of the Absurd Worksheet for students in .docx

RESOURCE: Theatre of the Absurd Worksheet for students in .pdf

RESOURCE: Adapted script of La Pluie (PDF)

Image source: http://50watts.com/The-Children-s-Theater-of-the-Absurd

PART I: Depending on the level of my students, I like to introduce the Theatre of the Absurd with a video in either French or English (or both!). I’ve found two videos that I recommend that are under 3 minutes: The best French video I’ve found is by Pierre Teuler and the best English video is by the BBC. Through watching the videos, we make a list of characteristics of the Theatre of the Absurd or the Absurdist movement (which we’ll come back to in Part III). I also recommend this post if you want to have stronger grounding in the Theatre of the Absurd movement yourself for context. You can also watch these videos for more information:

• TedEd video “Why should you read ‘Waiting for Godot’?” by Iseult Gillespie (5:03)

• CrashCourse video “Beckett, Ionesco, and the Theater of the Absurd: Crash Course Theater #45”

• Un plume fragile video “Mouvement littéraire : Le théâtre de l'absurde - résumé et explication”

PART II: Listen to the text. The original cassette tape is looooong gone, but this part is important since plays are meant to be performed!  You could get a fellow French teacher to record a version with you to play or perhaps you could ask some strong students to read it aloud (after giving them the script ahead of time to look it over). The worksheet I have has students filling in the blanks with the inverted questions that they hear. I have a bank of the answers that students can use, but for stronger students you can remove the bank. As we go through, I tend to pause to clarify for understand (as much as you can truly understand Theatre of the Absurd!). You can also show a video of the original text (or a short clip from it) being performed once you’re done. Although students might not understand it all, there is something special about seeing how actors are able to imbue a play about meaninglessness with so much meaning and physicality!

PART III: Go back to the list of characteristics. How does this text represent the Absurdist movement? In the worksheet I made, I left space around the script for students to annotate on the actual script. Below are some examples of what I’ve pulled from the text, but your answers may be completely different!

• Believed life is meaningless and the universe is inexplicable = Person Two is unable to find an answer as to why Person One does not support the rain, and we are unable to understand what that even matters in the first place

• Wanted to represent a more dream-like environment of confusion and ambiguity, unlike most plays which try to represent reality on stage = Person One begins by stating “Je ne supporte pas la pluie”. This is a bewildering statement to both Person Two and the audience, and as the scene continues to confound us, we must eventually accept that understanding will always be an impossibility

• Wanted the audience to distrust language as a communication tool, as they believed that language was incapable of truly expressing the human condition = the ambiguity of language is highlighted through the use of the verb “supporter”, which like in English, can have a variety of meanings, such as to accept, to take responsibility for, to tolerate, or to root for

• Draws attention to the banality of every-day conversation = the words spoken in the dialogue are conversational and colloquial, such as the use of “Eh bien… je suppose que…” and “Hou!”

• Use of questions to represent the struggle humans have to understand an inexplicable reality = Person Two uses questions to attempt to clarify why Person One does not support various things associated with the rain. This is also how ideas are connected and flow: despite each question eliciting another illogical tangent, the questions are able to move the dialogue forward.

Image source: http://50watts.com/The-Children-s-Theater-of-the-Absurd

PART IV: Students pair-off and write their own absurdist dialogue. In the first column they have the script, in the second part they annotate how this conforms to the tenets of the Theatre of the Absurd, using La Pluie as a model. This is also an opportunity to focus on creating inverted questions! For students that might need inspiration to get started on their scenes, you could have a hat with pieces of paper with a bunch of weather phenomena (ex. the rain, the snow, a rainbow) or another theme (ex. normal activities or common objects) to give students inspiration.

PART V: Have an ‘absurdity-off’!!! A pair of students perform their absurd dialogue for another pair. Between the two groups, they decide which of the two texts were more absurd (honor system). Continue with the winners going up against a new pair (while the pair that was eliminated gets a chance to watch other pairs perform). After there are only two groups left, they perform for the class as a whole and the class votes on the ‘Most Absurd’ dialogue. (NOTE: If you have group that is strong with improv and seems to grasp the concept easily, you can skip Part IV, or at least make it less scripted, having them sketch out their basic idea rather than write out an entire script).

POTENTIAL CONTINUATION/FORMATIVE FEEDBACK: Students individually rewrite the script they made with their partner, paying attention to grammar and vocabulary (which likely has some errors since they quickly wrote it in class). However, the catch is that while they can keep the answers, they have to make completely new questions! (Or the opposite: they need to make completely new answers to the original questions! Or they exchange their scripts with another group and need to do this!) Students then hand it in for the teacher to give feedback on inverted question formation. I also usually start the next day with a warm-up game that involves absurd inverted questions.

 UPDATE: I’ve adapted this lesson for a Drama Grammar lesson template, which you can check out here.

How do you use different types of drama in your classroom? Have you ever explored the Theatre of the Absurd with students? Share in the comments!

Using improv in the language classroom: Defining Drama

Your language-teaching mission, should you choose to accept it, is to incorporate improv games and activities into your language classroom.

Drama is “a wide range of oral activities that have an element of creativity present” (Thorton & Wheeler, 1986, p. 317)

This is part III of a series of posts on using improv in the language classroom.

Just because a teacher uses “drama” in their language classroom does not necessarily mean that everyone is on the same page as to what that means, or the philosophies behind their choices. Dr. Kathleen McGovern, (author of the book on improv in the L2 classroom I can’t stop recommending) notes, for example, that a teacher that subscribes to the Audio Lingual Method, who believes that the repetition of scripts is integral to language learning, will have a different approach that a teacher who subscribes to Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), who would forgo scripts for role plays and improvised games to enhance communicative competence. Moreover, a teacher who teaches using the Total Physical Response approach would have students embodying words and phrases, while Total Physical Response Storytelling (while similar in name, not similar in philosophy) would have teachers use comprehensible input and aspects of students’ lives while acting out a story. All of these are technically drama-based teaching, but all are very different! The only thing they have in common is the fact that drama is not the primary focus of L2 instruction, but as a tool to be used to enhance learning.

Therefore, Dr. McGovern, after synthesizing the literature that emerged in the field of drama and L2 instruction over several years in her 2017 article, suggested a system of classifications of common approaches that teachers can use when discussing drama:

Classification 1: Theatrical Performance

• Definition: Students study and then perform a play in the target language.

• Pros: Introduces students to the target language’s culture.

• Cons: The plays chosen will often reinforce the norms of the dominant culture.

Classification 2: Process Drama

• Definition: Involves improvised scenes, does not require an audience, and emphasizes learner reflection.

• Pros: It has been shown to increase student engagement and participation, reduce anxiety, and result in multi-modal learning.

• Cons: The benefits to students’ language learning is correlated to their teachers’ drama experience.

Classification 3: Games and Improvisation

• Definition: Teachers use a wide repertoire of theatrical games and improvisation techniques.

• Pros: While not specifically tied to a conceptual framework, this approach fits well within CLT’s goals.

• Cons: Is a short-term method that relies solely on isolated exercises and is teacher orientated.

Drama is “the literature that walks and talks before our eyes” (Boulton, 1968, p. 3)

McGovern emphasizes that a difficulty in studying drama in L2 education is that drama is not static but constantly evolving. She suggests the following distinctions be made in order to limit confusion:

• “Drama” v. “Theater”: Drama should be used to describe students engaging with theatrical activities, while theater should refer to students enacting a performance for an audience.

• “Product-based” v. “Process-based”:  Product-based drama should be used to refer to an approach in which students study and rehearse a text that they then perform to an audience. In contrast, a process-based approach is one in which students participate in improvisation and theater games and is limited to the classroom.

• “Small-scale” v. “Large-scale” forms: Small-scale forms should refer to activities that last only one class or unit and do not result in a final product. Thus, large-scale forms should refer to activities that are script-based and require more time.

Accordingly, in the spirit of Dr. McGovern’s desire to have clear definitions when talking about using drama in the L2 classroom, I want to clarify that when I talk about improv on this blog, I am talking about something that can be described as:

1. Games and Improvisations. While Process Drama uses improv games, it is part of a much deeper philosophy of continuous, embodied learning that emphasizes learner identity. Games and Improvisation is the use of one-off activities that are incorporated into a teacher’s existing curriculum, and is not considered the curriculum itself. For more information on Process Drama I recommend Erika Piazzoli’s 2018 book “Embodying Language in Action: The Artistry of Process Drama in Second Language Education”.

2. Drama. While sometimes my students perform for an audience of their classmates, that is not the goal of the activities we do.

3. Process-based. There is no product. As Margaret Piccoli notes, one of the best parts of improv is that it forces us to be in the moment because it disappears as soon as it is complete!

4. Small-scale. Any language teacher that takes on the task of staging a complete theatrical performance that takes months to rehearse, build, and promote gets all my admiration. However, that is the opposite of what I’m talking about!

While I was able to teach with no problems before coming across these classifications, I think there is a lot of value in being able to specify what we do.  For one, it allows us to reflect on the choices we make. For example, if I subscribe to CLT, and I have my students memorizing scripts, then there is clearly a conflict between my philosophical framework and the activities I use, and I need to make some changes. Furthermore, specificity gives us better understanding. If another teacher and I are both using “drama” in our French classes, we might have very different assumptions about what is happening in each others’ classrooms. Additionally, for research purposes, once everyone gets on the same page with definitions, it’ll make finding articles that are actually relevant that much easier!

Also, I think there is tremendous value in all areas being discussed! Galante (2011) notes that “while drama offers opportunities for learners to use prior knowledge of the L2 in a creative manner, theatre focuses on accuracy and aspects integral to the performance such as vocal projection and comprehensible speech” (p. 276). While my interests have leaned towards the process-orientated drama side of things, if I had a class that wanted to do a theatrical production, or needed to focus on accuracy, vocal projection, and comprehensible speech, I would love to do a big end-of-year presentation.

Source: McGovern, K. R. (2017). Conceptualizing drama in the second language classroom. Scenario (Cork), XI(1), 4-16.

Do you think definitions are helpful when discussing drama? How would you categorize your own use of drama in your language classroom? Share in the comments!

What are you doing? Improv Grammar Game

Your language teaching mission, should you choose to accept it, is to use the “What are you doing” improv game to reinforce present tense verb use. 

“What are you doing?” is a classic improv warm-up game. By that, it’s a game that’s designed to exercise your creativity, not be presented to an audience for laughs (though those usually occur!). More importantly, for our purposes, it’s a great exercise to practice the present tense of verbs!

 The way that the game works is that Person A starts miming an action, let’s say fishing. Person B walks up and asks, in the target language, “What are you doing?”. Person A responds by saying what they are doing using the present tense, but it can’t be the thing they are miming. So maybe Person A says “I’m playing hockey”. Then Person B begins miming playing hockey. Person C walks up, asking “What are you doing?”. Person B responds with anything but playing hockey, so maybe they say “I’m watching TV”. And so the game continues.

Stock image sites are great for brain-storming ideas for possible actions or for printing out pictures to help scaffold students into playing the game.

There are a few ways that this can be played. One is having a small group circle, and the person to the left always asks what the person to the right is doing. A more challenging variation is doing this in pairs, which keeps students on their toes, as they don’t have any time to preplan their answers. More advanced students might be able to do this game without any scaffolding, but novices might need a brainstorm of verbs, or even just conjugations, before playing.

This a great game for introducing students to improv, as typically there’s no audience and they only need to produce one sentence at a time. If you’re worried about students freezing up, the first time you play you can pass out slips of paper with either the sentence students should say or a picture of the action they should describe, so that they can get used to the format of the game (miming the action but saying something different). Then, in the second round, they need to generate their own verbs.

 You can also encourage students to go beyond the subject+verb structure, asking for further information. For example, maybe it’s subject+verb+adverb (or however your TL structures it) so that the student has to mime playing hockey excitedly, fishing unenthusiastically, or watching TV sadly. This can make for more challenging grammar, but also more fun for the students doing the miming! You can also encourage students to stick to themes, such as unit vocabulary or types of verbs (for example, only irregular verbs or reflexive verbs).

The beauty of the game is that there is an infinite number of responses (as many as there are verbs and qualifiers): the only wrong ones are if you describe what you’re currently doing or you assign an inappropriate action to your partner! Students can get really creative with both their answers (walking on the moon, feeding an elephant, eating a cake as big as me) and their mimes (I’m smiling just thinking about someone miming trying to eat a cake that’s the size of themselves!)

RESOURCE: Video describing how to play the game

RESOURCE: Video that goes into variations of the game and tips/tricks

RESOURCE: Florea (2011) breaks down this game into six easy-to-follow steps (presentation / practice / production / preparation / modeling / play) to add more scaffolding into playing this game, which you can read on pages 50-51 of her article.

Have you played this game before? Feel free to share any variations, lessons learned, or thoughts in the comments!

Using improv in the language classroom: Core Values

Your language-teaching mission, should you choose to accept it, is to incorporate improv games and activities into your language classroom.

What some view as the only rule in improv: “Yes, and…”

Image source: https://www.amindapart.org.uk/blog/the-real-meaning-of-the-improv-rule-yes-and/

This is part II of a series of posts on using improv in the language classroom. 

As I mentioned in part I, there really are no supplies needed for most improv. However, there is something that the teacher needs to do when incorporating these kinds of activities, or any activities that involve students taking risks with language: create an environment of physical and emotional safety. Once that is in place, really anything can happen!

Some teachers recommend discussing the ‘rules of improv’ with students. If you’re only planning on incorporating small games here and there, I don’t think that the rules need to be explicitly discussed. However, if you’re wanting to do more free scenes, this is a must.

Everyone has their own opinion on what the ‘rules of improv’ are. Depending on who you ask, there might just be one (usually ‘yes and’) or ten. When working with students, I like the ‘rules’ proposed by Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor and Kathleen McGovern in their fantastic (and highly recommended) book, Enlivening instruction with drama and improv: A guide for second language and world language teachers. Their four rules are:

1. Be Present & Pay Attention

2. Say “Yes, And”

3. R&R (take risks and be ridiculous)

4. Endow Scenes with Meaning

Personally, I think talking about the values of improv, especially in the context of education, is equally as important. Anja Keränen outlines what she believes to be the four main values of improvisational theatre:

1. The first value is that improvisation is suitable for everyone, and that lack of talent is not a barrier to participation.

2. The second value is that mistakes are not errors, but opportunities to learn and increase confidence. Trying and failing is encouraged in improv, as students are expected to learn by doing. Moreover, errors can be liberating as they are possibilities to learn new words or strategies while still staying within the frame of mind of communication.

3. The third value is that participants must say ‘yes’ to all ideas presented.  Both teachers and students must let go to their own ideas and accept the other participants’ ideas as better than their own.

4. Finally, the fourth value is that the improvised scene disappears and is forevermore unattainable. This puts the focus on the communicative skills being demonstrated and the learning happening within the scene, forcing teachers and learners to be in the moment. Moreover, this can be perceived as a rebellion against traditional education systems that focus on creating error-free, concrete products.

 Some claim that the rules and values of improv will make you a better person, or a better leader, or a better school. While I can’t speak to all of that, I can say that improv makes for better lessons, which I can’t wait to share with you!

Using improv in the language classroom: What is improv?

Your language-teaching mission, should you choose to accept it, is to incorporate improv games and activities into your language classroom.

Image source: https://outschool.com/classes/improv-for-beginners-zF5ESyMY

This is part I of a series of posts on using improv in the language classroom.

Did you know? Improv was invented in the 1930s when Viola Spolin, inspired by Neva Boyd’s play-based progressive educational philosophy, needed a way to engage children and immigrants in theatre. Improv, she found, was able to bridge gaps in language and culture. Despite these educationally based origins, almost a 100 years later, improv is not a major presence in most language classes.

I think that improv games and activities can be one of the most valuable tools in a teacher’s repertoire. The beauty of improv is that most activities take no time to prep, need no supplies, and involve a lot of laughter and joy. You can use improv to enhance the lesson plans you already use as a way to reinforce grammatical concepts or practice communicative strategies, or you can transition to an entirely improv-based curriculum. It’s your choice! I’m going to assume that most readers want to enhance their existing lessons, so will be basing most of my posts on simple games to add some fun to your day. However, I will eventually share some of the ways that I’ve successfully used improv as the basis for entire units.

What is improv? Improv, which is short for “improvised theater”, is when participants use language or movement in an unrehearsed manner. Improv falls into various categories: free scenes, role plays, scenarios, and games. Some improv is just playing around with language, such as playing the “What are you doing?” warm-up game.  Some improv, like asking students to present an original story that incorporates four idioms they’ve pulled from a hat, is meant to be presented and entertain others. Traditionally, improv means no preparation, but when working with language learners, I don’t always follow that rule. I discuss more about that in my post about free scenes. All in all, improv can mean a lot of things, but there are some things that I think are the most important:

Why is improv so powerful? Margaret Piccoli notes that:

• Both language skills and creativity must be practiced often and with different degrees of difficulty, and that improv is a way to accomplish success in both areas.

• The fundamentals of improv, such as ‘yes, and’, ‘no mistakes, only opportunities’, and ‘make everyone look good’, create collaborative and supportive environments for students to develop their L2.

• Improv builds students’ confidence by letting them focus on the natural desire to play rather than on the possibility of embarrassment, as well as letting them focus on the process of using the L2 rather than the mechanics.

• The “process-focused, not product-focused” nature of improv also allows students to explore an infinite number of possible scenarios, giving them the confidence to use the target language in situations not previously studied in the classroom, i.e., authentic language use.

• The need for collaboration for improv to be successful not only creates an environment of positive feedback and an opportunity to celebrate peers’ achievements, but a chance for students from various backgrounds to work together on common ground.

• Improv accesses multiple intelligences, allows students to explore themes that are relevant to their lives, and gives them a sense of control over their own learning.

Who ‘owns’ improv? Everybody! Although the seeds of improv can be seen in commedia dell’arte, vaudeville, and burlesque, it is Viola Spolin who is widely considered the founder of modern improv.  Viola would invent new games every time she came across a barrier in communication or understanding with the children and immigrants she was working with. She went on to found Second City Improv, and in 1986 wrote the ‘bible’ of improv in education: Theater Games for the Classroom: A Teacher's Handbook. However, Viola Spolin, or more modern improv names such as Ryan Styles and Amy Poehler, are not seen as the authority on improv. Instead, improv games, like many folk ideas, vary from person to person in regard to how they are played, what name they go by, and the purpose for which they are used.

Citation needed? Due to the elastic nature of improv, while there have been many wonderful educational article and books published outlining how one can use improv in the classroom, it is very difficult to determine who has intellectual ownership of any of them, if such a thing is possible. Like many educational techniques, such as doing a jigsaw, reading aloud, or think-pair-share, it can be difficult to determine who originated these ideas. When sharing games on my blog, I try to attribute where I can, particularly if a certain permutation is new to me in an educational context and I can share in which book or article I found it. However, I have come across many of these games in my own experience as an improv performer, which began long before I became a teacher.

For more on improv, check out:

• Part II: USING IMPROV IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM: CORE VALUES

• Part III: USING IMPROV IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM: DEFINING DRAMA

• The Drama Grammar Method: USING IMPROV IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM: DRAMA GRAMMAR PART I & PART II

• Post about games such as “What are you doing?”, “Boogers!!”, “What is it?”

• Get started with Games for Novice Learners

Alphabet Game

Your language-teaching mission, should you choose to accept it, is to expand students’ vocabulary and encourage linguistic teamwork by playing the alphabet game.

This one is a twist on a classic car-ride game! I like to use it for the first or second day of the semester as it’s a great way to “warm up” students’ brains if they haven’t been thinking about the target language for a while, and it can also be a fun creativity starter for any day of the year.

Step One: Divide students into groups. This can be done individually, but it won’t be as much fun!

Step Two: Give students a large piece of paper/chart paper with the letters of the alphabet. When a signal is given, they can start writing. They should work fast, as it’s a race to the finish!

Example of an alphabet themed by food with illustrations. Source: https://www.jenniferhines.design/food-alphabet-illustration-series

Step Three: Students write a word that starts with each letter of the alphabet in the target language. This can be general for lower levels (literally any word except for proper nouns) or more specific for more advanced learners (adjectives, words within a theme, words longer than 5 letters, etc.)

You might feel like this might be too easy for your students, but I promise you, it’s actually not. That’s for the same reason that I know I love books, and have read literally thousands of them. However, ask me to write a title of a book I’ve read for each letter of the alphabet, and my mind goes blank, as if I’ve never seen a book in my life! It’s the same with students and vocabulary, especially at the beginning of a semester.

 Step Four: Once one of the groups finishes their entire alphabet, they call “Time!” and then everyone has to put their pens down. Then the scoring begins as each group shares their words with the class. The group gets a point for a word IF NO ONE ELSE WROTE IT AS WELL. For example, say there are six groups in an ELL class, and Group A wrote “Apple”, Group B wrote “Anaconda”, Group C wrote “Advil”, Group D wrote “Adoort”, Group E wrote “Apple” and Group F left their space blank. Only Group B would get a point: Group A and E had the same word, Group C used a proper noun, Group D didn’t write an English word, and Group F didn’t provide a word in time.

Step Five: Continue going through the alphabet as a class and groups self-score as they go. This can be a great opportunity for impromptu vocabulary and grammar lessons. For example, when I do this exercise with my French students they struggle with thinking of words that begin with ‘k’ or ‘z’ that their classmates may not know. I like to share what I think is one of the cruelest words in French: ‘zozoter’, which means ‘to lisp’ but is impossible for someone with a lisp to actually say!  It’s also interesting to see what words your students bring to the table; maybe they love reading about animals and have a bunch of French animal vocabulary. I find that students enjoy the game because it’s low stakes, involves group work, and does challenge them to think beyond the basic vocabulary.

This can be a good game to have up your sleeve for substitutes, since once they’ve played it, students don’t need further instructions. As the teacher, you can also play on your own paper, and students can try and ‘beat the teacher’. I also like to keep the papers from the beginning of the year, and then play the alphabet game at the end of the year as a fun wrap-up. Then I put up their sheets from the beginning of the year, compare them to our most recent version, and we all admire how much more expansive our vocabulary has become!

Image: https://improvgames.com/alphabet-2/ (Note: I’d change “Darlene” to “Darling” in the fourth speech bubble, since the scene already established the name Betsy)

IMPROV ADAPTATION: There is a popular improv game also called the ‘Alphabet Game’ which is based on similar principles. This, in contrast to the written “Alphabet Game” above, is quite difficult because you need to stick to the context of the scene, react to the previous sentence, and have it all make sense! I’d say this is for advanced learners, but worth a try with eager (and willing to fail and start again) intermediate learners!

My favorite descriptor of the game is from Improvgames.com because eagle eyes will notice that they do the whole post in a meta-style, starting each sentence with the first letter of the alphabet. (Note: You could do a similar adaptation as a written game for students, using it for a quickwrite prompt, for example!) There is also an elimination version of this game, which allows more than two people to play the game at the same time (as demonstrated in this video by Splash Games).

UPDATE: I saw this great visual brain teaser about all the letters of the alphabet, which could make a fun starter to this starter! Answers can be found at the thinkaboutmaps Instagram page.

Have you played this before? Are there any variations that you recommend to make this easier, harder, or more interesting? Share in the comments!