Humanizing Humor: A Conceptualization of Humor in Multilingual Learning Spaces and in Language Instruction

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Empowering Bi-/Multilingual Learners: Cognitive, Pedagogical, and Social Dimensions in Diverse Educational Contexts (Table 1)

Abstract

This work challenges the idea that humor is an unimportant aspect of classroom learning, happening only on the periphery of the ‘real’ learning taking place. Grounded in humanizing pedagogies, with humor studies spanning elementary and high school settings, and much of the empirical literature from university contexts, this literature review synthesizes humor’s relationship to multilingual learning. The goal of this work is to lay out what is meant by humanizing humor as a construct that specifies dimensions of humor-based interactions and its potential to renew the educational landscape by supporting students to bring their full selves to the classroom and to language learning.

Author

• Rachel M. Siegman, Vanderbilt University