Instructor humor serves a wide range of functions in educational contexts. This paper reports on a study that investigated the functions of instructors' humorous verbalizations in academic classrooms at a university where English is used as a second language. Data were collected through audio-recordings and classroom observations. The results of an inductive analysis led to the development of three major categories, namely “foregrounding form”, “reinforcing meaning” and “highlighting cultural dissimilarities”. These categories represented the strategies that served as instructional functions of humor in the context of L2 (second language) education. Findings indicate that using verbal humor in L2 classrooms offers opportunities to facilitate access to L2 linguistic and cultural knowledge resources that are embedded in humorous exchanges. Additionally, the findings suggest that L2 instructors must have specific (socio) linguistic and sociocultural humor competence to use humor to engage learners and communicate finer aspects of the L2. The implications of the findings are explored within the context of second language learning and teaching.

Taking laughter seriously

The role of verbal humor in second language education

This chapter explores Modern Foreign Language (MFL) teacher identity within the context of contemporary Secondary education in England. It examines the extent to which an MFL teacher’s views of herself, her beliefs, knowledge and understandings of the profession, are shaped by and filtered through communities of practice within or beyond MFL subject departments, and how these influences vary over time and across different settings. This chapter offers insights into communities of practice and their role, in interaction with a teacher’s sets of general teaching and language teaching beliefs and her sense of agency in sustaining a teacher’s views of herself as an educator.

How a Community of Practice Shapes a Modern Foreign Language Teacher’s Views of Herself as a Teacher over Time and Space: A Biographical Case Study

Humor at work: using humor to study organizations as a social process

On The Relationship Between Grice's Maxims And Humorous Discourse

https://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/proj/genbunronshu/28-2/weeks.pdf

Taking laughter seriously

Citations

The role of verbal humor in second language education

How a Community of Practice Shapes a Modern Foreign Language Teacher’s Views of Herself as a Teacher over Time and Space: A Biographical Case Study

Humor at work: using humor to study organizations as a social process

On The Relationship Between Grice's Maxims And Humorous Discourse

Freud and the Economics of Laughter

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