Encouraging English Expression through Script-based Improvisations
Manette R. Berlinger

Abstract
Dialogues, scenes and plays that approximate real communication provide a dynamic format in which language skills can be introduced and reinforced. Improvisation greatly enhances this approach. This article describes how students can create an original dramatic production starting with a "kernel" situation, scripting the opening lines of each scene and improvising a plot that adds characters until every student is included. While rehearsals reinforce the correct scripted language, the improvisation encourages students to mobilize their vocabulary, respond to grammatical and syntactical cues, develop cultural and social awareness, and gain confidence and fluency.
Introduction
Scripts have long been employed in ESL instruction because they permit students to actively acquire the vocabulary, idioms, grammar and syntax of English speech. All dramatic works--dialogues, scenes, or plays--demonstrate both the cognitive principle that information is best assimilated through more than one sensory route, and the behavioral notion that repeated action imprints knowledge upon the mind. Because they involve all aspects of language, scripts that are rehearsed in class can offer students a dynamic encounter with language that comes closest to real communication.
Recognizing the benefits of scripted dialogues, I decided to incorporate them into my curriculum--but with one additional component: improvisation. Research and experience with improvisations about conflict situations have shown that, in academic contexts, they generate complex, critical thinking and thoughtful, detailed writing. It seemed likely, then, that the momentum of an improvisation about a compelling situation would propel student "actors" to mobilize their language skills, respond to linguistic cues, and generate new speech as required by the plot. I therefore planned an improvisation that would begin with a script but evolve into an open-ended, multifaceted confrontation. My goal was to motivate the use of passive and mutually interchanged vocabulary, varied syntax and grammatical adaptation, in particular the conversion of verb tenses as dictated by the plot.
How to Set It Up
For a class of about 25 students, this activity requires about a half hour of class time twice a week for approximately four weeks. The amount of time can be increased or decreased according to the length of the script, the degree of participation and the level of performance desired by the students.
With the class:
Choose a dramatic life situation, such as: an immigration interview, the first day of school, a bank loan, a college interview, a first date, a new job, a new neighborhood, the school bully, work problems, trouble in a foreign country, a frightening experience, getting lost, finding something valuable, rites of passage, getting married, winning the lottery.
Create two characters basic to the situation. Ask for volunteer actors.
Using chairs, the desk and a few props, create a simple set. Block actors in place, elicit the opening dialogue from the class, introduce new and familiar vocabulary, sentence structure and verb tense. Write the opening script on the board or overhead projector. Have everyone copy it.
Using simple stage directions, have the two characters read and rehearse the script. As they read, have the class create new characters one at a time. As each is created, elicit an opening dialogue, write the script on the board or an overhead projector, and have the class copy it.
Rehearse the play from the beginning as often as possible for three to four weeks. Be sure the scripted dialogue is repeated before the actors are allowed to improvise.
Integrate writing assignments as the play evolves that analyze plot, characters and themes, as well as reinforce vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure.
If possible, perform and videotape the completed play in an audio-visual studio before invited guests.
Tips for Avoiding Pitfalls
Be flexible. This encourages improvisation as well as language expression and experimentation. By allowing for variation, the play can more closely simulate real life communication:
Be flexible about roles in case they do not work out. Allow students to try each others roles until they find comfortable ones. This also enables creative ideas to germinate.
Be flexible about the script. Include various choices if the students suggest them.
Don`t rehearse scenes excessively. Keep the momentum of the play going.
While assignments can be precise, let the improvisation stimulate expression, variation and fluency.
How We Did It
Our class chose "Job Interview," a rite of passage that everyone had either anticipated or already experienced. This situation possessed the key elements that would stimulate self-generated, adaptive language: the flexibility to include a range of characters, and the need to refer to all time planes: past, present and future.
The "kernel" plot consisted of the president of an important manufacturing company, and Mr. Jose Martinez, a job applicant. Scripting the beginning of the interview, the class immediately created a third character, the presdent`s secretary. The scene opened with the president seated at my desk, the secretary standing nearby, and Mr. Martinez waiting outside in the hall. The class wrote the initial introductions and the questions the president would ask Mr. Martinez about his education,