Breaking frame in a role-play simulation: A language socialization perspective

This article uses key concepts developed in frame analysis and language socialization theories to reconceptualize role-play simulation as socialization practice. The reconceptualization includes (a) an effort to explain an unexpected response to a role-play simulation on the topic of bullying and (b) a discussion regarding how this explanation sheds light on the nature of role-play simulations as a popular and robust form of pedagogical and socialization practice. Key concepts from frame analysis include the following: first, the differentiation between fantasy and play activities on one hand and serious and real-world activities on the other; second, the notion of breaking frame to identify and understand situations in which participants violate the rules and expectations of conduct associated with the role-play in which they are immediately engaged. Key concepts from language socialization include the ideas that socialization is accomplished through participation in interactional routines and that these interactional routines are subject to negotiation every time that they are used in practice. The article concludes that role-play simulations have a high potential for providing situations in which participants break out of the representation frame of simulation and into the frame of real-world consequential action.