Callig: Computer-Assisted Language Learning using Improvisational Games

Introduction

CALLIG is an online platform (in development) for playing verbal improvisational games, which are generally played face-to-face and in collaboration.

In an improvisation performance, suggestions are elicited from the audience. In CALLIG, suggestions are randomly generated by the system. Spontaneity in improvisation is implemented with the use of a timer.

At this stage, only single-player games have been implemented. All games require the cognitive skills of remote association and/or divergent thinking. Both are hallmarks of creativity. These games provide contexts for creative language use.

Our games come from: (i) existing improvisational games; (ii) modifying existing games and (iii) new games designed by the team.

Improvisation

Improvisation is a type of performance where performers create the content of the performance as it is performed. There is no pre-determined content. Everything is made up on the spot. Such performances can be of music, theatre or dance, to name a few possibilities. In improvisational theatre, improvisers create characters, plots, songs or whatever is needed spontaneously as the show proceeds.

Improvisational comedy is a branch of improvisational theatre. Improvisation comedy generally refers to the Chicago style improvisational comedy, which originates from “Com- pass Players” and “The Second City Comedy Theatre” in the 1950s. Viola Spolin and her son Paul Sills used improvisation theatre games in the rehearsal process to help actors to focus and find their voices. At around the same time, the British playwright and director Keith Johnstone began to use theatre games for both education and actors’ training. He invented the popular format “Theatresports”, a performance where two teams of improvisers compete by trying to out-perform the other team in improvisational games.

There are two main types of improvisational comedy: long form and short form. Long form improvisational comedy consists of a sequence of improvised short scenes. A few suggestions would be elicited from the audience for inspiration, which act as the launching pad for the show. These scenes are often related. The thread that links them is discovered and developed as the performance progresses. Short-form improvisational comedy consists of games (generally a few minutes in length). Each game has its own built-in constraints. For example, in the game “Stand, Sit, Lie”, 3 players have to improvise a sketch where at any given moment exactly one of them is standing, one is sitting and one is lying down; in the game “Numbers”, players can only speak in sentences with a given number of words. Every game requires inputs from the audience, e.g., an occupation, a location, an emotion, a number, etc.. These suggestions would be assigned to the scene as well. The popular American TV show “Whose line is it anyway?” is a well-known performance of short-form improvisational comedy. The show consists of a panel of four performers who engage in a number of games where they create characters, scenes, and songs on the spot.

Improvisation is an active and focused state of playing. It is generally collaborative in nature. Every improviser contributes to the creation of the performance. Improvisers need to be spontaneous (there is no time to think), flexible (you don’t have full control of where the scene is going), supportive (disagreeing with each other affects the progress of the scene) and take risks in making bold theatrical choices (this makes exciting scenes). Many improvisers believe that “through improvisation, they tap into a spiritual dimension where they can access originality, authenticity and truth”. The applied value of such an art form hasn’t gone unnoticed. The techniques, the principles, tools, practices, skills and mind-sets developed in improvisation have been used for non- performance purposes, such as language learning and corporate training. Many of the major players in tertiary education have improvisation programs for business schools or for communication training (e.g., UCLA, Stony Brook University, and MIT).

Team:

Luis Morgado da Costa (conceptual design, main developer, maintainer)
Joanna Ut-Seong Sio (conceptual design)