This paper traces evidence from neurobehavioural researchshowing how language functions occur in the brain and supportthe efficacy of drama as a methodology in all language learning.According to Pribram’s holographic view of the brain, move-ment is integral to the transference of vocabulary from the poste-rior convexity to the frontal cortex where words are transformedinto meaning via pragmatic processing mechanisms and then pro-duced as language in the midbrain motor structure which is alsothe center of emotion. Drama is movement with emotion. Words which become amplified with meaning during the dramat-ic process traverse neuronal pathways from the lexicographic,posterior brain to the right forebrain and converge in vocal ex-pression in the centrencephalic mechanism. Without such move-ment, meaning and output do not occur. Words impregnatedwith meaning in the emotional movement of the dramatic processparallel drama-language movements within the brain so thatlearning becomes deeply embedded, retained and easily recalled.Tested drama methods which reinforce or imprint such intra-brain language functions are briefly reviewed as is selected drama-language research supporting the drama-brain-language concep-tual framework of holistic language learning theory. It is arguedthat learning a second language as well as a first languagethrough drama, the language art form which imbues the narra-tive and language structures of any culture, constitutes qualityeducation.
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