Laugh and Learn: Evaluating from Students’ Perspective of Humor Used in English Class

Ika Apriani Fata, Endang Komariah, Irfandy Irfandy

Abstract


Laughter is an easily reachable way that can be used to erase barriers of communication for educational purposes. The purpose of this paper is to seek out students’ perception of humor added in teaching English and how that humor influenced students’ engagement in English classroom activity. This study employs research instrument of questionnaire and observation concepts through qualitative design. There are 78 students of multi-background: gender, level of intelligence and social background as research participants. These backgroundsareintended to obtain objective perception of the students. The findings revealed that the majority of students believed the teacher’s humor could prevent them from feeling stress of learning English, develop a better relationship between teacher and students, help them remember and understand the lesson, encourage them to be more active in the classroom and ease them in learning English. However there are some obstacles to overcome during humor application that apparently the English teachers need to build a good relationship and mutual trust with students and understand students’ interests, likes and dislikes prior to applying humor, so that the humor would be more likely to be welcomed and it would not cause emotional and psychological impact such as bullying and etc for the students.

Keywords


Humor; perceptions; teaching English; education; learning environment

10.15548/jt.v25i2.425 Abstract view : 14907 times PDF : 826 times

Full Text:

PDF

References


Aboudan, R. (2009). Laugh and learn : Humor and learning a second language. International Journal of Arts and Sciences, 3(3), 90–99.

Alptekin, C. (2002). Towards intercultural communicative competence in ELT. ELT Journal, 56(1), 57–64.

Askildson, L. (1992). Effects of Humor in The Language Classroom:

Humor as A Pedagogical Tool in Theory and Practice. Arizona Working Papers in SLAT, 12, 45–61.

Bekelja Wanzer, M., Bainbridge Frymier, A., Wojtaszczyk, A. M., & Smith, T. (2006). Appropriate and inappropriate uses of humor by teachers. Communication Education, 55(2), 178–196.

Bell, N. D. (2009). Learning about and through humor in the second language classroom. Language Teaching Research, 13(3), 241–258.

Bergen, D. (1992). Using Humor to Facilitate Learning. Childhood Education, pp. 105–106.

Berk, R. A. (2002). Humor as an instructional defibrillator. Journal of Health Administration Education (1st ed., Vol. 24). Virginia: Stylus Publishing, LLC.

Bruner, J. S. (2009). The process of education. Harvard University Press.

Buck, G. H. (2005). Humor in education: schooled to death? Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 51(2), 97–99.

Cabrera, M. V. (2008). Learning about humor: Teaching second language humor in ESL. Washington State University.

Cann, A., Stilwell, K., & Taku, K. (2010). Humor styles, positive personality and health. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 6(3), 213–235.

Davenport, D. C. (2015). Examining Peer Perceptions of Humorous Communication in the College Classroom. University of Kentucky.

Fovet, F. (2009). The use of humour in classroom interventions with students with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, 14(4), 275–289. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632750903303104

Frymier, A. B., Wanzer, M. B., & Wojtaszczyk, A. M. (2008). Assessing students’ perceptions of inappropriate and appropriate teacher humor. Communication Education, 57(2), 266–288.

Galindo, F. A. (2012). The Use of Humor in The Classroom: Exploring Effects on Teacher- Student Immediacy and Student Learning. The University Of Texas at El Paso.

Garner, R. L. (2006). Humor in pedagogy: How ha-ha can lead to aha! College Teaching, 54(1), 177–180.

Glenn, P. (2003). Laughter in interaction (Vol. 18). Cambridge University Press.

Goel, V., & Dolan, R. J. (2007). Social regulation of affective experience of humor. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19(9), 1574–1580.

Gruner, C. R. (2017). The game of humor: A comprehensive theory of why we laugh. Routledge.

Halula, S. P. (2013). What Role Does Humor in the Higher Education Classroom Play in Student-Perceived Instructor Effectiveness ? Marquette University.

Ivy, L. L. (2013). Using humor in the classroom. The Education Digest, 79(2), 54.

Lei, S. A., Cohen, J. L., & Russler, K. M. (2010). Humor on learning in the college classroom: Evaluating benefits and drawbacks from instructors’ perspectives. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 37(4), 326–331.

Makewa, L. N. (2011). Teachers’ use of humor in teaching and students’ rating of their effectiveness. International Journal of Education, 3(2), 1–17.

Martin, R. A. (2010). The Psychology of Humor: An Integrative Approach (1st ed.). Boston: Elsevier Science.

Mayo, C. (2008). Being in on the joke: Pedagogy, race, humor. Philosophy of Education Archive, 244–252.

McCreaddie, M., & Harrison, J. (2018). Humour and laughter. The Handbook of Communication Skills.

McGhee, P. E. (2014). Toward the integration of entertainment and educational functions of television: The role of humor. In The entertainment functions of television (pp. 193–218). Psychology Press.

Morreall, J. (2014). Humor, philosophy and education. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 46(2), 120–131. JOUR.

Morrison, M. K. (2008). Using Humor To Maximize Learning. United Kingdom: Rowman & Littlefield Education.

Munoz, J. (2005). Learning through humor: Using humorous resources in the teaching of Foreign Languages. The A.T.I.S. Bulletin, 42–46.

Nguyen, H. (2014). The use of humor in EFL teaching: A case study of Vietnamese university teachers’ and students’ perceptions and

practices (PhD Thesis). University of Canberra, Australia.

Norrick, N. R., & Chiaro, D. (2009). Humor In Interaction, 263.

Olajoke, A. S. (2013). Students’ Perception on the Use of Humor in the

Teaching of English as a Second Language in Nigeria. International Education Research, 1(2), 65–73.

Pham, H. N. H. (2014). The use of humor in EFL teaching : A case study of Vietnamese university teachers ’ and students ’ perceptions and practices. University of Canberra,.

Pojoga, S., Marici, M., & Pojoga, S. (2015). The role of teacher’s communication, involvement, enthusiasm and humor in the Behavior Control of Preschool Pupils, 2(1), 35–44.

Samson, A. C., & Meyer, Y. (2010). Perception of aggressive humor in relation to gelotophobia , gelotophilia , and katagelasticism. Psychological Test and Assessment Modeling, 52(2), 217–230.

Shibinski, K., & Martin, M. (2010). The Role of Humor in enhancing the classroom climate. Athletic Therapy Today, 15(5), 27–29.

Strong, T. (2013). The culture of humor in the classroom: The good, the bad, and the other. The Canadian Music Educator, 54(4), 31.

Tosta, A. L. (2001). Laugh and learn thinking over the funny teacher Myth. English Teaching Forum, 39(1), 26–29.

Vescio, V., Ross, D., & Adams, A. (2008). A review of research on the impact of professional learning communities on teaching practice and student learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(1), 80–91.

Wallinger, L. M. (1997). Don’t smile before Christmas: The role of humor in education. NASSP Bulletin, 81(589), 27–34.

Wanzer, M. B., Frymier, A. B., & Irwin, J. (2010). An explanation of the relationship between instructor humor and student learning: Instructional humor processing theory. Communication Education,

(1), 1–18.

White, G. W. (2001). Teachers’report of how they used humor with students perceived use of such humor. Education, 122(2).

Zebila, M. (2012). Using Humor as A Pedagogical Strategy to Reduce Students’ Boredom: The Case of First Year Students of English at Biskra University. University of Mohammed Kheider – Biskra.

Zillmann, D., & Bryant, J. (2014). Using humor to promote learning in the classroom. In Humor and Children’s Development (pp. 49–78). Routledge.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.15548/jt.v25i2.425

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2018 Al-Ta lim Journal

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

View Stats
Al-Ta’lim Journal published by Faculty of Islamic Education and Teacher Training UIN Imam Bonjol Padang

Al-Ta'lim Online Journal
Print ISSN 1410-7546 Online ISSN 2355-7893


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.