ABSTRACT
Sociodramatic play is a collaborative group improvisation, where each of the participants in the group contributes, and everyone's actions build on those of the others. This chapter suggests that the improvisational dimension of children's play is what makes it an important contributor to emergent literacy. It summarizes research that connects children's play to literacy acquisition, and emphasizes one thread in this research: the identification of parallels between play and narrative competence. Play is a situated social practice, and the relation between play and literacy can be described using the lens of improvisation. The role of play in literacy acquisition is exercised in three key areas: symbolic transformations, metaplay language, and narrative competence. Thinking about play as improvisation highlights certain of children's literacy behaviors in play that are less evident when narrative is analyzed in terms of structure. The improvisational nature of play may also contribute to emergent writing and oral text production.
