Digital literacy skills are crucial twenty-first-century skills that are required for the successful use of technology and active engagement in today's world. However, there is a lack of effective resources and guidelines for developing English as a second language (ESL) learners' digital literacy skills. Due to their increasingly important and…

From a cultural perspective, humor may be a universal feature of all cultures, but what is considered funny varies greatly from culture to culture. In this article, the authors demonstrate the importance of understanding kinds of humor that differ across cultures and offer clear suggestions for teaching three kinds--verbal irony, memes, and…

The recent improvements in technology and their integration in language learning have played a facilitating role in vocabulary acquisition. Quizlet, an online teacher-/student-friendly tool, is one of the leading applications in vocabulary acquisition. Along with the effectiveness of visualization in acquiring vocabulary, humor has been also…

This brief article discusses how carefully selected comic strips can become great teaching aids for (English Second Language) ESL instructors. They are beneficial in part because they provide brief conversations in English with pictures that help convey the meaning of the words. ESL teacher Dina Dahbany-Miraglia, author of Speaking American…

Presents an annotated guide to humorous materials in French, including cartoons, poems, brief texts, and comic books, which may be used to introduce humor in the French classroom. References to other articles on this subject appearing in this journal are also included. (AM)

Advertisements can be used in many ways to facilitate the teaching of a commercial language. If reproduced as slides or other visual aids, they serve as a visual warm-up exercise for each class period, either reinforcing previously discussed topics or introducing new ones. Catchy headlines in commercials promote rapid expansion of vocabulary and…

Reading, writing, listening, and speaking activities and exercises that use folders of interesting material that students can use alone or in small groups are described. The folders contain pictures or other material of interest to the students, instructions in English and Spanish, and answers. The folders are color-coded by type of activity.…