Text Improvisation: a Skill to Acquire

DOI 10.24833/2949-6357.2025.TDI.7.1 УДК 81.24

Daria I. Ter-Minasova, Candidate of Cultural Studies, Senior Lecturer, MGIMO University, Moscow, Russia;
email: d.ter@inno.mgimo.ru

Abstract

For MGIMO students, the main goal of mastering a foreign language is the ability to speak in public. When practicing this skill, they often face the problem of stage fright. To overcome it, students seal the text so that it becomes automatic, with the need to communicate the message totally escaping their attention. As a result, instead of an eloquent orator the audience sees a talking head. The method of improvisation, which is used to train actors, may well become the lifeline for the students. Thus, the work aims at seeing how teachers could adapt this method to the needs of the students and train it in the language classroom. Relying on the findings of distinguished Russian and overseas actors and directors as well as on the results of the experiment held by the author, the work proves that improvisation techniques help melt the frozen form of the text and give it life and energy.

Keywords: Improvisation, public speaking, communication, stage fright, sealed text, eloquence.

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