The past two decades have seen a growing interest in the role of humor and play in second-language (L2) learning and teaching. Drawing on the methods of conversation analysis, discourse analysis, and sociolinguistics, researchers have sought to understand how teachers and students "do" humor and play, what functions humor and play serve,…

A lighthearted look at popular euphemisms and the reasons behind their creation and use. (RL)

Explores the many facets of graffiti as humor, with some educational asides about using graffiti to explain forms, styles, attitudes, and variations in language. (RL)

Explains how puns work and how they are formed. (RL)

Uses trademarks that are calculated misspellings, bumper sticker slogans, the strained and pretentious language of Howard Cosell, and governmental jargon to illustrate how to attune students to the magic and power of language, while poking fun at language abuse. (RL)

The theory and practice of analyzing jokes, with implications for class discussions. (RL)

Explains why humor should be studied in English classrooms and how humorous writing serves as a vehicle for making its readers more socially conscious of human values. Offers a list of books that can be used in classroom discussions of humor. (RL)

The linguistic complexity of humor is illustrated with examples of word play translated from French to English and English to French. Examples from the writings of James Joyce and Marcel Proust are highlighted. (CB)

The connections among language learning, language education, and children's wordplay are explored in this book. Each chapter examines some aspect of the interrelations between wordplay activities and the goals of language education. The book is divided into three sections, with the first section exploring wordplay and language learning in the…

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…

Writing teachers should consider cultural pluralism as a rich resource in their classrooms, rather than as a distraction with which to cope. Because speakers of nonstandard English have important language skills in at least two different dialects, teachers should not only teach the standard dialect but also invite nonstandard English speaking…