While student stress and anxiety are frequently cited as having negative effects on students' academic performance, the role that instructors can play in mitigating these challenges is often underappreciated. We provide summaries of different evidence-based strategies, ranging from changes in instructional strategies to specific classroom…

Although research has investigated laughter in professional communication settings, fewer studies have explored laughter-talk in second language (L2) classrooms. This study examines L2 university students' use of laughter-talk in peer group conversation to understand the linguistics of affect and its interactional effects. The author draws upon…

This article demonstrates, using conversation analysis, how students use address terms when reproaching the teacher. The data consist of videotaped lessons of Finnish as a second language in secondary school. The analyses show, first of all, that teacher-oriented address terms can be used separately as reproaches, in which case they are marked…

An English teacher describes her feelings, experiences, and attitudes about keeping humor in the classroom. (RL)

Presents responses from 22 teachers on activities used to increase student awareness of language usage and language patterns and to heighten student appreciation for specific works of literature. (RL)

Two high school English teachers disagree on the efficacy of making jokes about racial and cultural stereotypes. (RL)