In recent times, the number of studies examining the use of humor in teaching English as a second language (ESL) in Asian countries has increased as researchers have acknowledged the positive effects that humor has on language teaching. This study presents a systematic review focused on the use of humor in ESL teaching within Asian countries. Its…

The authors assert that as the world's population ages, play becomes an underappreciated and underdeveloped opportunity to address many of the challenges associated with growing old. But no systematic examinations exist for the role of play in age-friendly policy. The authors seek to determine the extent to which play has been integrated into such…

Like their counterparts elsewhere, Australian children favour humorous novels; comedic writers consistently dominate the preteen and early teen fiction market in Australia. Regardless of its popularity, however, in comparison to more serious writing, humorous literature has received little critical attention. Of the studies aimed at this area,…

Reviews theory and research on the relationship between humor and creativity. Briefly describes two Israeli projects aimed at encouraging humor creativity in adolescents and at teaching teachers to use humor to foster creativity. (FMW)

The Arabic language used in Egypt is traditionally divided into two major types: classical and colloquial. The idea is that classical or literary Arabic is to be found mostly in formal writing and speaking, whereas colloquial Arabic is used mainly in daily conversation. When it comes to actual usage, however, this distinction is not always clearly…

This paper investigates the intentional creation of ambiguity by composers of cryptic crossword puzzles. Taking a research question of "what makes a cryptic clue more difficult to solve than a simple crossword clue," it compares a sample of cryptic and quick crosswords from "The Guardian" and attempts to isolate the linguistic…