An important (and often overlooked) component of understanding language is the understanding of how humor works and what social parameters determine and are determined by its usage.
Modern research
Archakis, A. and V. Tsakona. 2012.
The Narrative Construction of Identities in Critical Education. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Bell, N. & Pomerantz, A. 2016.
Humour in the Classroom. A Guide for Language Teachers and Educational researchers. New York: Routledge.
Tsakona, V. 2013.
The Sociolinguistics of Humour. Athens: Grigoris [In Greek]
Tsami, V. 2018.
Mass culture texts and Language Variation: Critical Analysis and Development of Teaching Materials. PhD Thesis, University of Patras (School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Philology) [In Greek]
shows that incorporating humorous materials in language education contributes to the development of multiple skills, compatible with the principles and goals of critical literacy.
The term critical literacy
(critical literacy)See. Baynham, M. 1995
Literacy Practices. Longman.
refers to the acquisition, through educational practices, of the ability to approach texts critically and to understand the motives, ideologies, and (conscious or unconscious) biases of their creators. The development of students’ critical literacy is part of modern curriculums and educational policies (for Greece see ΔΕΠΠΣ (2003) and
ΑΠ-ΠΣ 2011
Ministry of Education & Pedagogical Institute (2011).
A cross-thematic curriculum framework for teaching Greek language and literature in compulsory education. Athens. [In Greek]
)
This platform can be used at all levels of teaching Greek as a first or second language. The material has been organized in ways that facilitate critical literacy teaching practices, using a Wiki model, which offers an array of functions:
