Emergent Bilingual Students' Use of Humor in Digital Composing: Academic and Social Work

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 23
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Considerations for Languaging in Classroom Contexts

Abstract

Under dominant, autonomous views of literacy, students’ humorous language-use during literacy events is often dismissed as “off task” behavior. Taking a languaging perspective, this paper considers how third-grade, emergent bilingual students’ humorous language-use functioned in both “official” and “peer” worlds (Dyson, 1993) during eBook composing events across one year. Microethnographic analyses of humorous events suggest that students’ humorous languaging practices not only supported the work of composing texts, but also helped them connect to peers and construct their own and others’ social positions within the classroom. Implications for pedagogy, including the importance of creating classroom spaces where students can talk and interact with one another while composing, are discussed.

Author

• Lindsey Rowe, The Ohio State University - Columbus