ABSTRACT
this chapter explores the ways that drama can be used as both a method and as a form that can be applied to the study of many kinds of text – literary or mundane, still or moving image, prose fiction or non-fiction, play text or film script – alongside the exploration and understanding of spoken and written language in different social, cultural and historical contexts. In drama, the verbal modes of speech and writing are set in the context of bodily communication and embodied relations between people. Sharing drama work in progress with the class, showing devised scenes and role-plays, or performing scripted work either as a dramatized reading or as a rehearsed presentation provides real audiences for pupils’ work. Drama in classrooms, either as pedagogic method or as object of study, is not a new thing – in fact, in the history of compulsory schooling in the UK, it has a history that stretches back well over 100 years.
