This article explores the potential of the classroom as a venue for authentic,
real-life language use, and highlights the importance of unplanned classroom
communication. Examples from the lessons of prospective English teachers in
Hungary and Turkey indicate that, when given the opportunity, EFL students
enjoy using the L2 spontaneously. The classroom observations provide evidence
that unplanned interactions can create conditions which give rise to humour
and linguistic creativity, both of which feature prominently in language
use outside the classroom as well. By raising metalinguistic awareness and
promoting fluency, humorous language play facilitates language acquisition
as it enables learners to experiment as well as express their own meanings
and find their voice in English. Teachers should, therefore, encourage off-task
conversations and make good use of students’ humorous repartee and asides.
Teacher educators should also encourage prospective teachers to create and
exploit opportunities for naturally occurring interaction in their future classes

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Tersedia

• Bringing real-life language use into EFL classrooms

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