Developing Improvisational Spoken Interaction through Collaborative Instruction: A Staged Approach to Interactive Speaking in Japanese EFL Classrooms

This study examines how improvisational spoken interaction can be systematically developed within regular Japanese EFL lessons through a recursively structured backward-aligned instructional sequence. Twenty learners in Grades 5–8 participated in weekly tasks integrated into their existing classes. A shared analytic rubric articulated target interactional competence behaviors and aligned instructional activities, practice tasks, and a final one-minute unscripted interview with an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) around clearly defined performance outcomes. Across a three-cycle sequence, learners engaged in (a) keyword-based activation with teacher modeling, (b) scaffolded peer interaction emphasizing elaboration and follow-up questioning, and (c) brief performance interviews, with scaffolding gradually reduced to promote self-regulation. Recorded ALT interviews were analyzed using discourse-based indices—words per turn, total turns, elaborative moves, follow-up questions, and repair—and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests revealed significant gains across all measures (e.g., words per turn, r = .54), with medium-to-large effect sizes. Findings suggest that early interactional competence can be cultivated through coherent task sequencing and transparent performance expectations. By operationalizing improvisation as a teachable dimension of interactional competence, this study offers a feasible and replicable model for integrating improvisational spoken interaction into mainstream elementary and lower-secondary EFL classrooms.