The Power of Language Nurtured Through Pretend Play
The Power of Language Nurtured Through Pretend Play
Children who engage in pretend play—such as playing house, store, school, or dinosaurs—use language differently depending on the purpose, situation, and role. Through such play, they develop the ability to use language that fits the purpose and context. The skills that grow are not limited to language; various abilities such as imagination, expression, understanding, cognition, thinking, cooperation, and communication are also developed.
It is helpful to think of dramatic readings performed at school as a form of 'pretend play' for dramatic readings. This allows students to avoid the pressure of aiming for a professional-level performance. While having fun and becoming absorbed in the play, they can deepen their understanding and refine their expressions. With a similar mindset, for example, if middle or high school students create and perform various skits with different audiences, purposes, and settings, it becomes an opportunity to develop writing and acting skills, as well as to think about language usage appropriate for the purpose, audience, and situation.
Broadening this perspective further, if we view writing poetry as 'playing poet,' writing novels or fairy tales as 'playing author,' creating newspapers as 'playing journalist,' and conducting experiments or surveys to write reports as 'playing researcher,' we can see each of these play environments as learning opportunities that develop the language skills useful for that specific activity.
In Chapter 6, 'Language and Characters in Early Childhood,' of my book 'Enjoying Japanese Language Arts' (Toyokan Publishing, 2023), I presented various games that foster language and character development. In Chapter 3, 'Project Units Where Language Grows,' I introduced over a hundred projects, including creating picture books, making newspapers from the future or past, creating guidebooks, compiling anthologies, creating various types of dictionaries, creative writing, adaptations, reading guides, restoration reading aloud games, voice catch-ball games, and speech exchange meetings. I would like to view all of these as 'pretend play' and value the learning that emerges within each individual during the process of the activity more than the final result, quality, or rankings.
See 'Enjoying Japanese Language Arts' by Hisayoshi Shuto.
https://amzn.to/3XSzSc9