Communication Teacher

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Impromptu speech gamification for ESL/EFL

students

Davide Girardelli

To cite this article: Davide Girardelli (2017) Impromptu speech gamification for ESL/EFL students,
Communication Teacher, 31:3, 156-161, DOI: 10.1080/17404622.2017.1314522

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/17404622.2017.1314522

Published online: 27 Apr 2017.

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Download by: [RMIT University Library] Date: 14 December 2017, At: 19:04
 COMMUNICATION TEACHER, 2017
VOL. 31, NO. 3, 156–161
https://doi.org/10.1080/17404622.2017.1314522

ORIGINAL TEACHING IDEAS—SINGLE

Impromptu speech gamification for ESL/EFL students

Davide Girardelli
School of Communication, Media, and Journalism, Wenzhou Kean University, Wenzhou, China

Courses: Any introductory undergraduate public-speaking course, ARTICLE HISTORY

in particular in ESL/EFL contexts Received 19 March 2016
Objectives: This single-class activity is intended to (1) build Accepted 29 June 2016
students’ ability to communicate orally “off the cuff;” (2) foster
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students’ understanding of the major organizational formats used

in organizing speeches; and (3) increase students’ awareness of
their nonverbal communication.

Introduction and rationale

Chinese demand for American-style education is on the rise. China is already the leading
place of origin of international students in the United States, and the United States is the
largest exporter of international branch campuses in China (Girardelli & Patel, 2016).
However, introducing American educational practices with their emphasis on students’
active participation in China is in many ways challenging: Chinese students tend to be reti-
cent to communicate orally in English in class, and this reticence is particularly proble-
matic in activities that target students’ verbal skills (Mak, 2011).
The vast majority of U.S. universities and their international branch campuses include
in their undergraduate curriculum at least one mandatory, introductory public-speaking
course, intended to strengthen learners’ confidence in presenting their ideas and to
build up their critical thinking skills (Morreale, Worley, & Hugenberg, 2010). The
impromptu speech, namely “a speech delivered with little or no immediate preparation”
(Lucas, 2005, p. 246), is one of the activities typically offered during these courses. Scholars
such as Yale (2014) highlight the importance of the impromptu speech as an important
vehicle to promote learners’ ability to communicate effectively, especially in organizational
settings. However, impromptu speeches are very intimidating for Chinese ESL students.
On the affective level, the lack of or limited wait time is particularly anxiety inducing
(Mak, 2011). On the cognitive level, Chinese students face challenges such as: (1)
limited mastery of English vocabulary; (2) limited speech organization skills; and (3)
limited background knowledge necessary to discuss one topic (Hsieh, 2006).
This paper outlines an impromptu speech activity designed to address typical issues of
ESL/EFL students, Chinese in particular. The activity is inspired by the principles of
gamification, namely the “application of game elements … in learning programs”
(Kapp, 2012), and incorporates the following core game elements: (1) Freedom to fail:

CONTACT Davide Girardelli dgirarde@kean.edu

Activity materials and instructor package: Available as a downloadable zip file at http://tinyurl.com/zw67q46
© 2017 National Communication Association
 COMMUNICATION TEACHER 157

De-emphasis of grading concerns by assigning a baseline “participation grade”; focus on

lessons learned through the gaming experience; (2) Rapid feedback: Multiple performance
evaluations from both peers and instructor in a non-face-threatening role-playing context;
(3) Storytelling: Inclusion of the activity in a unifying narrative; emphasis on students’
contributions in developing a story.
The use of gamification aims at remedying ESL/EFL students’ two levels of challenges.
Affective factors are addressed by playing artificial roles in a fictional context. In this way,
learners can step outside potentially inhibiting student–instructor roles, saving face in case
of mistakes. Cognitive factors are minimized by encouraging the practice of classic organ-
izational formats and by referring to a scenario based on familiar tropes derived from
popular culture.
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The activity
Preparation and materials
The activity is designed for a single-class period (75 minutes) and consists of an
impromptu speech competition that follows the format of popular shows such as Amer-
ican Idol. In preparation of the activity, the instructor, who plays the role of the host,
must subdivide the class into teams of a minimum four students: one member of each
team will join the judges, whereas the remaining others will play as presenters. The
instructor will provide judges with a score sheet with the names of the presenters for
each round of the activity.
The activity requires: (1) a specially designed set of “story slides”; (2) physical copies
of the “story slides” to be used as handouts for the participants; and (3) a video projec-
tor. Teams compete to create the overall best “Dented Helmet vs. Spambot” story, which
focuses on the prototypical fight between two archenemies. This umbrella narrative is
subdivided into “story slides,” which capture a chapter of the story and a round in
the activity. Each “story slide” is designed around one of the major speech organiz-
ational formats typically covered in any introductory public-speaking course, namely
chronological, spatial, cause/effect, problem/solution, and topical orders (Lucas, 2005).
To stimulate presenters’ creativity, the “story slides” contain only a simple introduction,
basic connectives, and some abstract icons that presenters can interpret at will to create
their own speeches. The suggested sequence for a 75-minute class includes three chap-
ters/rounds: (1) the description of the superpowers of Dented Helmet, the hero of the
story (topical order; Figure 1); (2) the negative effects caused by the computer virus
developed by his archenemy Spambot (cause/effect order; Figure 2); and (3) the descrip-
tion of the final battle between Dented Helmet and Spambot (chronological order;
Figure 3).

Gameplay
At first, the host introduces the judges to the whole class and instructs them to evaluate the
coming speeches on a scale where 1 = “okay,” 2 = “good,” and 3 = “excellent.” Excellent
speeches are characterized by effective body language (no talking to the screen, no
defensive postures), strong eye contact (no looking at the ceiling/floor), and dynamic
paralanguage (no fillers). Judges should also consider participants’ ability to create a
 158 D. GIRARDELLI

Figure 1. “Story slide” #1 (topical order).

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Figure 2. “Story slide” #2 (cause/effect order).

well-structured (introduction-body-conclusion) and engaging (vivid language) speech

based on the “story slide” that will be shown on the screen.
The activity starts with a demonstrative round. The host displays the “warm-up slide”
(Figure 4) on the video projector and explains that presenters can either create their own
introduction based on the prompt or simply read the introduction readily available. Then,
presenters must continue their speech following the shown pattern and end their perform-
ance with an original conclusion. The host must emphasize that there are no right or
wrong answers. Instead, presenters should give their approximately two-minute

Figure 3. “Story slide” #2 (chronological order).

 COMMUNICATION TEACHER 159

Figure 4. “Warm-up slide” (topical order).

impromptu speeches creatively based on the “story slides”: the icons are simply intended
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to spark their imagination.

After the warm-up round, the actual activity begins. The host illustrates the basic premise
of the story (the endless fight between Dented Helmet and Spambot) and asks those who
have been selected to be presenters in the first round to leave the room, giving to each
one of them a copy of the first “story slide” (Figure 1) as a handout to prepare their speeches
briefly. Once the participants have left the room, the host shows on the screen the first “story
slide.” One by one, the presenters are invited by the host back to the room to give their
speeches. Afterwards, the judges briefly comment on the presenters’ performance, high-
lighting at least an area of strength and an area of improvement for each participant, and
indicate their favorite speech(es). The host summarizes the most significant comments of
the judges, adding insights on common mistakes and good practices. The same routine is
then repeated: a second group of presenters exit the room to get ready for the next
round, the second “story slide” (Figure 2) is displayed, the participants give their speeches,
and the judges comment on their performances. After the completion of the second round,
the activity continues and ends with the third and final round following the usual pattern
(Figure 3). A suggested script for the instructor/host is included in the instructor package.

Debriefing
While a member of the jury computes the final score for each team, the host engages the
entire class in a conversation about the lessons learned during the activity. The following
questions serve as a discussion guide:

(1) How does the story end? What happened to our characters? What’s next? (ice-breaker
question);
(2) What are the characteristics of the best presentations that we have heard today?
(3) How have presenters demonstrated their confidence in front of the public today? And
how about their lack of confidence?
(4) What is the best lesson that you have learned today regarding how to give effective
speeches “on the spur of the moment” in real-life situations?

The host also briefly reviews the “story slides,” revealing the organizational formats
underlying each slide.
 160 D. GIRARDELLI

Appraisal
The effectiveness of the activity has been evaluated on a sample of 81 Chinese EFL sopho-
mores enrolled in a Sino-American international branch campus accredited by the Middle
States Commission on Higher Education. Sophomore students are required to take a basic
public-speaking course, which includes two impromptu speech activities (“Dented Helmet
vs. Spambot” and the martial-arts inspired “Black Belt Jones” with a similar gameplay). In
an anonymous survey administered at the end of the semester, students indicated that the
activity contributed in increasing their confidence in giving a short speech in English
without much preparation, helping them to gain a better understanding of how to
organize their speeches, and increasing their awareness of the importance of nonverbal
communication. In sum, our exploratory, preliminary findings suggest that the proposed
activity is effective in reaching the intended objectives.
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Variations
The activity has been designed for a class size of roughly 24 students and a 75-minute class
period, which translates into six teams each with four students (six judges and 18 presen-
ters) and three impromptu speech rounds. As an alternative, instructors could consider a
smaller number of teams and more rounds. For example, with four teams each with six
students it is possible to organize five speech rounds. Additional “story slides” available
in the downloadable instructor package include: the description of the city where the
story takes place (spatial order) and possible solutions to eliminate Spambot’s virus
(problem/solution order). The suggested sequence described in the “Preparation and
materials” section of this paper can also be modified by the instructor. The instructor
package includes a link to a Web site (www.flaticoncom), which collects free sets of
icons to facilitate full customization of the “story slides,” together with a color-coded
score sheet template, which can be used to organize the teams for the activity, and the
“Black Belt Jones” alternative story (slides and script).

Limitations
The activity is not indicated for large classes (24+ students). The instructor must allocate
at least 30 minutes to prepare the activity in advance (defining the lists of judges and pre-
senters and printing out the handouts). During the activity, instructors must be ready to
showcase not only their acting skills while playing the part of the host, but also their ability
to make adjustments to unforeseen contingencies, in particular dealing with last minute
no-shows, which may require for instance modifying on-the-fly the list of presenters
and reducing the number of judges. To minimize such disruptive events, the instructor
should clarify to the students that timely and full attendance is expected on the day of
the activity.
The activity has been designed for and evaluated in ESL/EFL contexts, in particular with
Chinese learners. It is not clear whether the simplified aspects may undermine native
English participants’ motivation. To minimize this potential issue, the activity can be
made more challenging either by forcing presenters to create their own introduction
(reading from the prompt not allowed) or by not giving handouts (wait time down to
 COMMUNICATION TEACHER 161

zero), or both. At the same time, both the popular jury/presenters scenario and the
intended humorous undertone of the “story slides” should make the activity enjoyable
for everyone, including native English speakers.

Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and to
Robert Cirasa and Alessandro Manfredi for inspiring this class activity.

Notes on contributor
Davide Girardelli is Assistant Professor of Communication at Wenzhou-Kean University
(China).
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ORCID
Davide Girardelli http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4738-107X

References and suggested readings

Girardelli, D., & Patel, V. (2016). The theory of planned behavior and Chinese ESL students’ In-
class participation. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 7(1), 31–41. doi:10.17507/jltr.
0701.04
Hsieh, S. M. (2006). Problems in preparing for the English impromptu speech contest. Regional
Language Centre Journal, 37(2), 216–235. doi:10.1177/0033688206067429
Kapp, K. M. (2012). Games, Gamification, and the quest for learner engagement. Training &
Development, 66(6), 64–88.
Lucas, S. E. (2005). The art of public speaking (10th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.
Mak, B. (2011). An exploration of speaking-in-class anxiety with Chinese ESL learners. System, 39,
202–214. doi:10.1016/j.system.2011.04.002
Morreale, S. P., Worley, D. W., & Hugenberg, B. (2010). The basic communication course at two-
and four-year U.S. Colleges and universities: Study VIII–The 40th anniversary. Communication
Education, 59(4), 405–430. doi:10.1080/03634521003637124
Yale, R. N. (2014). The impromptu gauntlet: An experiential strategy for developing lasting com-
munication skills. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, 77(3), 281–296. doi:0.
1177/2329490614537874