Children's sociodramatic play is very much associated with their growing ability to use symbols for a variety of functional purposes external to the symbols themselves. Defining such play as "voluntary social role-playing involving two or more children," this paper draws on research on sociodramatic play to: (1) discuss the nature of sociodramatic play and its function in relation to children's overall cognitive development; (2) elaborate on how children's sociodramatic play relates to their language development; and (3) propose a framework for enhancing children's language development through strategic instructional intervention. (Contains 21 references.) (EV)