| Key resources 1 - A social theory of language to underpin drama
A model of learning about language through drama
In our lived experience we operate in various social roles, we choose and use different registers and adopt/switch dialects according to the experience of the situation we are in. This is also what happens in drama;
| • we imagine that we are in a different physical and social situation from that of the classroom; |
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In drama, language is only one of the forms used to represent the situation. We don’t just talk ourselves into the context. We also make meaningful use of space, gesture and objects to define both the physical and the social elements of the situation |
| • we take on new roles; |
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what we say and do is determined by who we are in the drama and the demands of the situation that we face |
| • we interact with others; |
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we establish our social relationship with the other players through language and actions - the language we each use expresses our needs and intent in the drama but it also symbolises our position in the social structure and hierarchies of the drama. If my role is that of a lawyer, I choose my words to communicate information but I also choose them to show that I am lawyer - I will talk like a lawyer. |
| • we learn new language from the experience. |
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the drama experience, like a life experience, becomes a personal resource, which can help us grow in our knowledge and use of language |
Drama provides one means of engaging students in the contextual or subtextual level of a text; it locates text level study of a text within the broader social and cultural context in which the text is made, used and understood.
Drama can both reveal and comment on the contextual level of text production. In all forms of drama what we try to do is to recreate the context in concrete and visible ways so that the connections between text and context can be seen and actively experienced.
Even the most simple act of communication - a message or exchange of an anecdote between two communicating agents - will occur in this cultural space and will be bound by the codes and rules that govern that space, and will be bound by considerations of differences in terms of status, age, gender, cultural difference. And, of course, speakers also come with a past and are motivated towards a future. Part of the complexity of our world is trying to understand the interconnectedness of these aspects of experience.
 
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