How can comedy be used as an effective tool and truly help innovate the learning experience? This paper outlines how aspects of comedy have been creatively integrated into primary and secondary academic curricula such as English Language Arts, social studies, drama, as well as in areas of mental health and wellness. The essay demonstrates, for…

This paper aims to study English jokes on Facebook. Since the current generation of our students is often described as Net Geners, learning the English language via jokes posted on social media can be one of the supportive ways for EFL learners to improve their L2 linguistic competence as well as L2 humor competence. The data, or jokes, in this…

Purpose: In this paper, the authors engage with embodied critical literacies through an exploration of the possibilities provided by the use of improvisational comedy (improv) in the classroom. The purpose of this paper is to extend understandings of critical literacy to consider how embodied critical literacy may be transformative for both…

Generation Z (Gen Z) represents something of a quintessence for the broken promises that now seem to make up the promise of higher education. But if despair indicates the dark side of generational malaise around things like civic engagement, community, and student learning, the dark humor that has emerged out of these generations points to modes…

Purpose: Unlike formalist and functional approaches to literacy and teaching writing, a languaging theory approach centers on the dynamic and interpersonal nature of writing. The purpose of this study was to determine students' ability to engage in explicit reflection about their languaging actions in response to their personal narrative writing…

This document presents the proceedings of the 27th Annual Research Forum held June 29, 2023, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Included are the following fifteen action research papers: (1) The Effects of Real-World Mathematics Activities on High School Students' Attitudes (Alexa Altizer); (2) An Investigation of the…

Adolescents' peer networks tend to segregate by relative language proficiency, but students from all linguistic backgrounds benefit academically from classroom peer relationships both within and across English learner (EL) and non-EL classified groups. We drew upon social network analysis of student survey data in 46 English and math middle school…

By examining the ways in which high school students in two different English classes take up virtual self-representation tactics in school-based social networking sites, this article explores how young people carefully juggle the digital identities they adopt for the eyes of both peers and teachers. The data reveals that the students'…

Students feel more comfortable in a new language when they understand its jokes. And when the jokes are puns, they build metalinguistic awareness. This article describes four categories of English puns--soundalike puns, lookalike puns, close-sounding puns, and texting puns--and suggests how they can be incorporated into English language…

In this paper, we explore the affordances of literature-based, arts-infused and digital media processes for students, as multimodal practices take centre stage in an English Language Arts unit on fractured fairy tales. The study takes up the challenge of addressing multimodal literacy instruction and research in ways that utilize a range of…

In a remix of the infamous Hitler meme--taking a scene from the movie, "Downfall" (2005), and adding subtitles appropriate (in this case) for "Kairos" readers--theamishaugur makes a pointed, humorous (to some) commentary on the status of multimodal composition scholars in English departments during job market season.

The authors, former middle and high school English teachers, review the rationale for using humor and fun in the classroom and provide detailed descriptions for teaching practices and activities that confer enjoyment and learning for language arts students. Although fun activities, these methods foster vocabulary development, grammar instruction,…

English teachers, members of the cult of fanatical seriousness in higher education, need to discover the fundamental comedy of life, as several recent writers have. (DD)

Presents a fictional interview with an ineffective English teacher. (DD)

A mild satire on a part of the English teacher's occupation. (Author)