Jrgen Kurtz Breaking through the Communicative Cocoon: Structure and Improvisation in the FL classroom In many foreign language

classrooms world-wide, learners are exposed to a surprisingly similar environment of instruction, which is suggestive of a communicative cocoon spun by teachers to foster and scaffold target language learning in systematic ways. The discursive design of the cocoon is relatively simple and inflexible. In the research literature, it is often referred to as IRF (initiation, response, follow-up). Cocooned away from the complexity and limited predictability of language use outside of the classroom, however, large numbers of language learners fail to develop into communicatively competent speakers of the target language (see, for instance, the findings of the DESI-study, i.e. Deutsch Englisch Schlerleistungen International, a Germany-wide empirical assessment study of ninth-graders' achievements in German and in English). In order to effectively facilitate and further enhance students oral proficiency, it is therefore very important to create and implement SMART communicative scenarios designed to give learners more room to speak spontaneously and freely in the FL classroom (SMART = significant, meaningful, achievable, relevant, time-related; see Piepho 2003). In my video-supported talk I will present and discuss specific examples of how I have used guided improvisation to promote spontaneous, more flexible speaking in secondary school EFL classrooms. The examples were gathered as part of an ongoing research project aiming at balancing structure (largely scripted, teacher-driven classroom discourse) and improvisation (increasingly unscripted and unprepared, learner-centered interaction and communication) in everyday practice. Since the basic theoretical framework underlying the improvisational activities presented is not specific to any language, teachers can easily adapt them to suit the needs of learners of other languages (including German as a foreign language).