ÇEVRİM İÇİ YABANCILARA TÜRKÇE ÖĞRETİMİ ETKİLEŞİMİNDE GÜLMECENİN İŞLEVİ

Abstract

This study examines the pedagogical and interactional functions of humor in synchronous online Turkish as a foreign language (TFL) classrooms through the lens of multimodal conversation analysis (CA). Using data from a B2-level preparatory class recorded in Türkiye, the research shows how humor is used in teacher- and student-initiated interactions, revealing how these exchanges signal the existence of, and contribute to, the development of online classroom interactional competence (e-CIC). Synchronous online language classrooms are environments rich in interactional opportunities, and humor can boost learning by enhancing learner engagement, expanding the interactional space, and maximizing lesson efficiency. In this context, the current study leverages the analytical power of multimodal CA (Mondada, 2018; Sert, 2015) to examine interactional details, investigating how teachers and students initiate humor in online TFL interactions. In line with the relevant literature, the study seeks to concretely demonstrate the interactional architecture and pedagogical achievements of humor in this setting. The research data consist of 75 hours of screen-recorded interactions from a Turkish preparatory class in a state university in Türkiye in the 2021-2022 academic year, with 11 hours of detailed video analysis comprising the core dataset. The findings indicate that humorous interactions enhance learning opportunities and sustain classroom talk. Additionally, they reveal teacher strategies that elicit and expand student responses within an interactional framework. The study demonstrates that humor facilitates spontaneous vocabulary teaching and topicalization, offering natural language use opportunities. Both instructors and students employ humor as a mitigation strategy, encouraging individual and collective participation while boosting linguistic production. Moreover, humorous interactions, when integrated with comprehension checks and response-shaping strategies, lead to extended and creative learner responses. These interactions foster a safe environment where learner contributions flourish, promoting risk-taking and autonomy in learning processes. Despite the challenges of online teaching and learning, humor strengthens rapport and solidarity among participants, augmenting the classroom through the use of multimodal resources (verbal, embodied, prosodic, screen-oriented). The findings have implications for teacher education, material design, curriculum development, classroom management practices, and online language classroom interaction. The study contends that humor should not be treated solely as an entertaining element, but as a strategic pedagogical tool, offering salient contributions to teacher competencies in TTFL. Additionally, this study is the first to systematically investigate humor interactions in synchronous online TFL settings using multimodal CA, thus, introducing an innovative perspective to the field.