Bringing real-life language use into EFL classrooms

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.