Teaching Linguistics using improvised comedy 1 Joanna Ut-Seong Sio and Lian-Hee Wee Nanyang Technological University and Hong Kong Baptist University USSio@ntu.edu.sg and lianhee@hkbu.edu.hk Abstract: In this paper, we report on an exploratory project where improvised comedy games were used as linguistic exercises. Improvised comedy games require spontaneous creation of scenes with the clever use of language. By incorporating linguistic restrictions into these games, they can be morphed into various linguistic exercises tailored for the application of specific theoretical concepts. This approach in linguistics teaching helps students establish creative connections between abstract theories and everyday lives. Our preliminary results indicate that this approach is not only effective, but is also welcomed by students. Keywords: Linguistics, university education, game formats, improvised comedy 1. Introduction Linguistic theories are often only delivered to students in a passive manner through textbooks and handouts. Students seldom have the opportunities to practice what they have learnt other than on paper or in very specific technical settings. Consider a phonetics and phonology class where students are introduced to a list of retroflex consonants given in the IPA chart extracted below. Table 1: List of retroflex pulmonic consonants retroflex Plosive ʈ ɖ Nasal ɳ Tril Tap or Flap ɽ Fricative ʂ ʐ Lateral fricative Approximant ɻ Lateral approximant ɭ Students are likely to learn how the sounds are made, required to memorize them and asked to use them appropriately in transcription or articulation exercises. Except for the student who aspires to be a phonetician, most would fail to see how this might help them understand the environments most proximate to them. Consider a more abstract example from syntax, where a student might be taught that verbs subcategorize for different number (i.e. monadic, dyadic and triadic verbs) and kinds of 1 This project was supported by the Hong Kong Baptist University Teaching Development Grants Project entitled “Teaching linguistic skills through comedy: an interdisciplinary approach” (TDG/0809/JUN/02). Thanks also to the HKBU Knowledge Transfer Office (grant KTP/005/JAN2011) for additional support leading to further developments that allowed us to share the art of Improv with the greater public. We would like to thank the Department of English Language and Literature for letting us run the course Linguistics through Theatric Comedy. We are grateful to Jami Gong, owner of TakeOut Comedy Hong Kong, for letting us perform at his comedy club and giving us a free lecture on the art of stand-up comedy. With respect to the online manual, we thank Frantisek Kratochvil for helping us film the videos throughout the project and Mr. Angus Lam for technical support. We are indebted to all the students who took a leap of faith and participated in this linguistic/comedy project that was then (and still now) clearly a work in progress.