Role Play and Dialogue in Early Childhood Education
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ROLE PLAY AND DIALOGUE IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
INTRODUCTION
In order to explore how role play and dialogue in early childhood contexts contribute to our understanding of language and education, we focus on, but are not limited to studies of sociodramatic play, where children pretend in verbal interaction with others. The terms imaginative play, fantasy play and pretend play are also used to describe play that is crucial in children’s development, particularly around ages 4–6, beyond which more rule-governed games and language play take over (see Lytra, Playful Talk, Learners’ Play Frames and the Construction of Identities, Volume 3). Smilansky (1968) characterises sociodramatic play as: (a) imitative role play, (b) make-believe with regard to toys or objects, (c) makebelieve with regard to actions and situations, (d) persistence for at least 10 minutes, (e) interaction between at least two players and (f) verbal communication. In our discussion of role play we are not limited to studies of at least 10 minutes, nor indeed to those that involve two actual players, rather we focus on those that include analysis of the language of the role play, or the dialogue. Assuming roles in dialogue is a complex process: In role play, children are able to synthesise their ‘factual’ and ‘fictional’ experiences, and also transform them for their own purposes. Such transformations involve both children’s affective selves and their adopted roles. That is, players do not simply reproduce pre-formed adult roles, but actively recreate playful versions of them. These re-creations do not necessarily adhere to ‘expected’ norms but may reflect players’ own interests and perspectives (Martin and Dombey, 2002, p. 58). Role play generates dialogue in different ways. Before and during the role play, children negotiate roles, props and plot, sometimes producing written scripts for themselves or puppets to perform. Educators may be involved at various stages, or not. The roles and the play blend stories and lived experiences with children’s imagination and developing identities, moving in and out of the play and different social contexts. As
M. Martin-Jones, A. M. de Mejia and N. H. Hornberger (eds), Encyclopedia of Language and Education, 2nd Edition, Volume 3: Discourse and Education, 291–303. #2008 Springer Science+Business Media LLC.
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S H E E N A G A R D N E R A N D A I Z A N YA A C O B
this suggests, role play is an excellent site for the study of dialogue that is creative, social and spontaneous in young children. E A R LY D E V E L O P M E N T S
The relationship between sociodramatic play and the language and literacy development of preschool children was well documented in the 1970s (Fein, 1981). Role play can promote increased language performance (Smilansky, 1968); a higher level of thinking skills (Bergen, 2001; Marjanovic-Umek and Musek-Lesnik, 2001) and power of imagination (Kitson, 1994; Martin and Dombey, 2002) in young children. It is a complex process that involves role taking, script knowledge and improvisation (Be
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