Using Nasreddin Hodja Stories in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Classrooms

Culture is an indispensable dimension of human life and also foreign language teaching and learning process; and as a part of the current trend, diverse cultural elements are covered in recently published English as a foreign language (EFL) coursebooks. These cultural elements are not limited to the target culture but they cover local and international culture components as well. Not focusing on solely one specific culture enables language learners to touch different cultures as well as maintaining awareness of their own culture. Humour constitutes another aspect without which human beings cannot survive. Our daily lives are full of humorous elements like jokes and these add remarkable taste to human beings' course of living. This positive prevalence of humour in human life may also have its reflections in the realm of language teaching. Considering the inseparableness of both culture and humour from human life, Nasreddin Hodja stories can ideally serve a double purpose while teaching English in EFL settings. When offered in English, these culturally embedded and humour-laden stories that wittily combine both local culture and humorous elements hold the potential to motivate both English language teachers and learners while teaching and learning English in Turkish EFL context. This study aims to discuss the possible ways to employ Nasreddin Hodja stories in Turkish EFL classrooms. To this end, sample to-the-point activities based on Nasreddin Hodja stories in English will be introduced for different language skills ranging from main skills like reading and speaking to sub-skills like vocabulary and grammar.