Improvisation (Listening, B2 Vocabulary, and Discourse Management)

 Role play – improvisation

Bálint Fanni & Vigh Molli

Part 1: The Game

Level & Learning Outcomes

Level: Advanced

Aim: Students can improve their speaking skills and can learn how to react to unpredicted turns in situations.


Materials needed 

Situation cards

Mystery cards


Object of Game

To act out a situation and use mystery words


Rules of Play

The game and its rules: Students form pairs, and they choose a situation card. This situation card also gives them a character to form. Each student gets a pack of mystery cards, which contain random words. Students start to act out the situation from the situation card, but after a certain amount of time, they must pick up a mystery card and build the given word into their conversation.  


Part 2: Reflection

I think the class really enjoyed this game. They could laugh a lot and as they said after the game they did not feel anxious at all. I also enjoyed listening to their conversations because they were so creative. I think it was not an easy game as they had to focus on what their pair said carefully to be able to connect to them and not lose focus.

This game can be improved by giving them harder words or more words. We can also ask the students to write random words on paper and we can mix those. It would also make the game interesting, as we enrol our students into the making process of the game and not just to the game itself.

All in all, I would say that this game is good, but students must be on level B1 (at least!) to be able to do and enjoy the game.  BF


I would say that this game is perfect for improving the students’ listening and speaking skills. When we were playing this game in class, our classmates had to be really creative and had to improvise a lot. In my opinion, this role-playing game was enjoyable for them and for us too. They laughed a lot and in the end, they said they did not feel uncomfortable. However, because of the vocabulary items, I would say that this game was not a really easy one. They had to know all the words to continue speaking and had to use connecting words to make a situation with coherent sentences. This is why I think that this exercise is for at least B1-level students. This game could be improved by giving the students harder situations or words, or more words.

All in all, I think that everyone enjoyed this game. We enjoyed creating it and our classmates enjoyed playing it. However, I think that below the B1-level, it is complicated to play. VM


Part 3 Appendix


Situations

Roles

Mystery words

At the doctor

Patient   

Doctor

Cucumber  horse   admire     ladybug   memory 

door            key      T-shirt      mirror      spoon

In the office

Boss

worker

Belt            quest     chocolate   hat        table         

Lamp         glass      picture       snake    eating

At home

Husband

wife

Alarming    knife    nightmare     knocking   watch

Gloves       insect   television      whisper   spider 

In the cafe

Friend

friend

Blow        lullaby       telephone       fish      bird

gossip     pancake    social media   thief     firefly

In the shop

Customer

Shop assistant

Butter    airport       psychological   blame  moon

Apple    calendar    computer          book    seat                                               

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