Summary: Lecturer in Performance Studies | Speaking | Stuart Grant Dr. Stuart Grant, Lecturer in Performance Studies Speaking Before language is a system of signs, a code, a representation, a means of communication, a mental process, a grammatical structure, it is something that a human body does. And it does it in speaking. Human bodies speak. According to Heidegger it is not humans that speak, but language that speaks, but the precondition of the existence of language, the ground, is the speaking body. Without the speaking body, language would be silent. This paper outlines some theoretical considerations which arose from a performance studies scholar's engagement with some of the anomalies of applied linguistics in the context of the use of techniques of drama and performance in the language teaching classroom. The assumptions are that language, as speaking, is embodied, expressive, affective, enculturing, gestural and performative; that the whole body speaks. The assumptions are that language, as speaking, is embodied, expressive, affective, enculturing, intersubjective, gestural and performative; that the whole body speaks. The paper outlines how each of these dimensions of speaking works, and begins to ask questions of how they might be given substance in a language teaching program.
