In a global context where children are increasingly exposed to hostile humour in cartoons like Adventure Time and Spongebob Squarepants, it is not surprising that we see this play out in school settings. More concerning, however, is how teachers can misuse their position of power to wield such forms of humour against students who dare to question…

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…

Although humor and laughter are most often based in fundamental social interactions, this element of communication has received little attention. To examine the socially facilitating effects of communication and social acceptance by analyzing children's intrapersonal perceptions of communication apprehension, or shyness, 169 children, aged 8 to 13…

Describes episodes of humor in a middle school classroom. (SR)

Humans in technology classrooms have allowed themselves to become dependent on technology. Especially when the technology fails, the instructor has to fall back on non-technology driven methods to teach technology applications. Issues arise, including time use, teacher credibility, and efficiency of teaching. This paper presents experience of…

Teachers can use play and humor to establish a climate conducive to learning and mastering effective skills in interpersonal communication classes. A classroom, wherein everyone is considered a teacher and student at the same time, is a classroom acknowledging students, promoting respect and acceptance of others' worldview on a wide range of…