Book Description

The connections among language learning, language education, and children's wordplay are explored in this book. Each chapter examines some aspect of the interrelations between wordplay activities and the goals of language education. The book is divided into three sections, with the first section exploring wordplay and language learning in the nursery years. It not only describes preschoolers' play with sound and the relation of such play to the task of mastering speech sounds, but it also describes how three-year-olds repeat and create language with a lilt. The second section describes wordplay and language learning during the ages of five to seven and includes jokes, riddles, and the poetic resources of language. The third section, dealing with the middle elementary years, discusses the three types of teaching/learning experiences for exploring wordplay: appreciation through the exploration of verbal play literature, creation through the presentation of opportunities to play with particular forms, and articulation through the raising of questions regarding patterns of play. Types of play described in this section include introducing confusion in communication by using words and phrases sounding the same as or similar to other words, using metaphors, creating riddles, constructing humorous verse (such as puns and limmericks), and engaging in parody play. The concluding section discusses times for play. (EL)