The DOI matches its Crossref record.
Language play, language learning
Abstract
This article challenges the widespread belief in contemporary ELT that students should be exposed to authentic or natural language, and that such language is primarily focused on making meaning and achieving practical purposes. Firstly, it is argued that the terms ‘authentic’ and ‘natural’ are vaguely defined, but that if they refer to language used between native speakers and by children acquiring a first language, this is not necessarily the best type of language use for foreign learners. Secondly, it is argued that a good deal of authentic or natural language is playful, in the sense of being focused upon form and fiction rather than on meaning and reality.
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Citations
Cited by
Legislation by Hypothesis: The Case of Task-Based Instruction
Swan, M. (2005) · Applied Linguistics · doi:10.1093/applin/ami013 · Cited by 481
Li, C., & Xu, J. (2019) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02453 · Cited by 156
Other-repetition as a resource for participation in the activity of playing a video game
MARSH, A. P., & TAINIO, L. (2009) · The Modern Language Journal · doi:10.1111/j.1540-4781.2009.00853.x · Cited by 152
Shintani, N., & Ellis, R. (2014) · Language Teaching Research · doi:10.1177/1362168813519885 · Cited by 24
Metadata
- Authors
- Cook, G.
- Venue
- ELT Journal
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 1997-07-01
- Volume
- 51
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 224-231
- ISSN
- 0951-0893 (ISSN-L)
- 1477-4526
- OpenAlex
- W2073364083
- Cited by
- 809
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 58.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Language play, language learning. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1093/elt/51.3.224
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- Cook, G. (1997). Language play, language learning. ELT Journal. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/51.3.224
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
