Grammar as social drama: A performance-driven approach based on core linguistic principles

Jean-Rémi Lapaire

doi:10.33178/scenario.20.1.2

Authors

Jean-Rémi Lapaire Université Bordeaux Montaigne

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33178/scenario.20.1.2

Keywords:

Grammar, Social drama, Interaction, Embodiment, Speech acts, Performativity

Abstract

Speech production is both a physical activity and a social performance. Grammar is an integral part of this process and should therefore be taught using embodied and interactional strategies. Grammar cannot be reduced to its formal elements and treated merely as a set of “rules”, “tools” and “constructions”. Posture, movement and vocal inflection play a significant role in expressing the grammatical meanings and functions that support communicative interaction. Grammar is the backbone of “(il)locutionary acts” (Austin, 1962) and the prime carrier of “locutionary subjectivity” (Lyons, 1995). In this article, we outline strategies for emphasising the dramatic, emotional and interpersonal dimensions of grammar. As learners engage with the proposed materials and activities, they discover how grammar operates socially and physically, and how it expresses the speaker’s subjective stance. They enact grammar-driven processes with presence, fluidity, and emotional engagement, absorbing and de-alienating a “foreign” system of coding and expression.

Author Biography

Jean-Rémi Lapaire, Université Bordeaux Montaigne

Jean-Rémi Lapaire is Professor Emeritus at Bordeaux Montaigne University. He worked as a lecturer, senior lecturer then full-time professor of cognitive linguistics, discourse pragmatics, gesture semiotics and language education from 1984 to 2024. He was active in various departments: English studies, French as a foreign language, dance and theatre. In collaboration with professional stage artists, he has developed "physical reading" techniques, experiential seminars and hybrid workshops where abstract thought, sensory stimulation and movement work together in unison. His current research interests include the status of the “learning body” in general education, the acknowledgement of “learning injuries” in personal learning histories, and the development of phenomenological approaches to language teaching and learning. He regularly gives talks, teacher training workshops and multilingual master classes in France and Ireland on the connection between embodiment, sensation, gesture and oracy.

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