Discusses the use of puzzles and jokes to encourage student interest in an English-as-a-Second-Language class. The object of this project was to relate to a more human context, the playfulness that pushes aside arbitrary school time each spring when Purim comes. (CK)

Examines practices and products of school culture: jokes, hallway conversations, home-school correspondence, and interpersonal interactions between parents and teachers. These practices construct parents as functionally illiterate and further a hierarchical view of the teacher/parent relationship. Offers examples of parental and professional…

Compared to 12 normally achieving students, 12 language-impaired high school students had significantly poorer comprehension of humor elements of riddles, jokes, and puns classified according to their phonological, morphological, or syntactic elements. Especially poor were subjects' ability to grasp the nature of multimeaning words and to segment…

Comparison of advanced and intermediate Saudi Arabian students of English-as-a-Foreign-Language comprehension of humor indicated that both cultural and linguistic awareness were important to understanding humorous materials. (CB)

Discusses various theories concerning the purpose of children's humor, especially in the classroom. Describes ways in which children use humor to deal with stress. (RJC)

Surveys research on children's literature and humor by professionals in the field. Presents an overview of pre-twentieth century books which indicate the main lines of development of humor in children's literature. (FMW)

Examines the relationship between the rated sex, aggression, and sexism values of cartoons and their perceived funniness. Results, interpreted by Zillmann's social predisposition theory, indicated response differentiation by sex. (MW)

This literature review summarizes humor theory as an instructional strategy and provides examples of humor research. Discusses relationships between humor, affect, motivation, information processing, and learner characteristics. Provides six guidelines for incorporating humor in computer-based instruction (CBI) and proposes a research agenda for…

Individual bilingual language performance in occasional songs is examined with focus on the use of Danish and English by a female member of a Danish-American organization in both song-writing and organizational written recordkeeping. The findings confirm the hypothesis of a conditioning effect of features of genre and social role on the…

Student perspectives on school and learning are remarkably similar to teachers' own views. Teachers want to be respected and to work with students who care and exhibit humor, openness, consideration, and active involvement in subject-area content. Students say they want these same things, including a safe, tension-free environment. (seven…

This article presents arguments for including activities to develop students' sense of humor and related skills in the gifted curriculum. Cognitive skills, reading, writing, mathematics, communications skills, and self-concept are seen as beneficiaries of humor units. A group activity and projects for a school comedy club are described. (PB)

Focuses on humor and the role that it plays in the development and maintenance of class cohesion. Presents findings from a two-phase qualitative study that examined the belief systems of experienced English language teachers and documented the social evolution of eight classes of adult language learners from a range of cultural and linguistic…

Around 5 or 6 years of age, children begin to recognize that speakers who make ironic remarks do not believe what they literally say, but children of the same age do not show appreciation for the humor function of irony (Dews et al., 1996; Harris & Pexman, 2003). We investigated 7- to 10-year-old children's interpretations of verbal irony and…

Parenting a gifted child may not be what Mom and Dad expected when they read parenting books and first saw that innocent infant face. A gifted child is a joy and a challenge--rarely predictable, sometimes frustrating and annoying, but never boring. This article discusses the characteristics and vulnerabilities of the gifted. The author offers some…

How can teachers use humor and film to convert geography classrooms into public spaces for thinking and talking about the world in a critical way? One useful resource for raising student consciousness and critical discussion is "TV Nation"-a satirical television newsmagazine show created, produced, and hosted by rebel-filmmaker Michael Moore in…