Exploring Spontaneous Acts of Lightheartedness in EFL Classrooms: A Reflective Duoethnography

Abstract

While research has extensively explored joy-related acts and attitudes, such as enjoyment, fun, play, and humor in language learning environments, no research has conceptualized or centered on spontaneous acts of lightheartedness. The aim of this research is to introduce the concept into the literature and provide a first glimpse understanding of its impact in face-to-face and online English as a Foreign Language classes. To accomplish this, consistent with emergent research analyzing spontaneous acts and underpinned by applied phenomenology, we appropriate methods of moment analysis and eidetic variation on duoethnographic data of reflections-on-, -in-, and -for-actions that occurred during the authors’ face-to-face and online classes over the 2022 to 2023 academic year at a university in Türkiye. In this way, a detailed first glimpse understanding of the phenomenon of spontaneous acts of lightheartedness and its various impacts are provided. Findings reveal essential features of the phenomenon and potential benefits for English as a Foreign Language classes, including fostering an atmosphere of engagement via the phenomenon’s prominent characteristics of vulnerability, comfortability, trust, and joy.